A Brand New Start
by Wheels'Girl
Summary: After spending 10 years prison, Wheels is getting on with his life. He befriends some kids he must help, and finally gets himself a girlfriend. Read to find out what will happen to Wheels, the kids, and his girlfriend! Includes characters from D:TNG!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!" The alarm clock buzzed.

"Uhm." A sleepy Wheels groaned as he rolled over in his bed to shut it off. He leaned over to the nightstand, picked up his glasses and put them on so he could see what time it was. It was 6 AM. He momentarily lied back down.

"C'mon, ya gotta get up!" He groggily said. "Gotta be to work by 9, and you know the rush hour traffic will be horrible!"

He forced himself out of bed and made his way to the bathroom across the hall. He turned on the shower and got in, letting the lukewarm water run down his face and over the rest of his body. It felt good.

After a quick shower, he shaved and got dressed, picking out a slightly worn Rolling Stones t-shirt and his favorite pair of jeans, then proceeded to the kitchen.

"Meow." Sheba, his grey and black tabby cat meowed when she saw him enter the room. She was waiting next to her food dish, which was empty. He walked to a cabinet and pulled out a bag of cat food. "Eat up!" He said as he poured some of the food in her bowl and gave her some fresh water.

He turned and went back to the counter and turned on the radio.

". . .News, traffic and weather is on all the time online!" The voice on the radio said, then a jingle of music came on. "Updating you on your commute to work, we have no accidents to report but there is one small tie-up downtown between York and Adelaide Streets. There has been a water main break and crews are trying to get that fixed as soon as possible. Front and Yonge Streets remain closed until the end of next month for repair. I'm Sara Ream in the Traffic Center."

"Dy-na-mite!" He sarcastically retorted to the radio as he poured himself a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. He knew full well that that water main break would mean taking the alternative, longer way to get to work and there probably wouldn't be any water in certain parts of the building once he did get to work.

He finished his cereal and juice, put the dirty dishes in the sink and went back into the bathroom to brush his teeth. He let Sheba outside before leaving for work. She always stayed outside while he was at work, spending most of her time lying out on his apartment's patio or using the fire escape as a way of getting down to the the apartment complex's yard and lying around down there.

The water main break forced him to take the long way to work, and one of the buildings he had to drive by every time he took that route was his old high school, Degrassi High. The building had long since been abandoned, and was in need of lots of repairs or possibly even demolition. His class, the class of 1991, was one of the last classes to graduate from the school. A new junior high school and high school had been built, and the Degrassi Schools had gone through a ton of changes. For one, even after the new high school had been built, it was closed down about ten years later, and the entire Degrassi High student body had been moved back to the junior high building at the beginning of the last school year. The new schools were much nicer and more modern, though. Wheels wished they had been that way when he was in school. He still had ties to Degrassi, though; his best friend Snake was now a teacher there, and Snake's stepdaughter, Emma, went to school there. Joey, his other best friend from school's stepson Craig also went to school there. Wheels had also developed close friendships with Emma and Craig.

Driving by that old, dilapidated building always brought back tons of memories for Wheels, some of them not so good. Wheels had had a bit of a falling out with his friends in grade 12 because, well, he had pretty much been an ass to them and did a lot of dumb stuff that got him into trouble. His parents died when he was only 14 because they'd been hit by a drunk driver one night when they were going out to see a movie, and he had an extremely hard time dealing with their deaths. He had gotten a postcard from Mike, his biological father, shortly after they died when he was living with his grandparents. He couldn't stand living with them, so he got the bright idea to run away to be with his dad. He'd thought his dad would want him, but, as it turned out, he didn't. Now Wheels realized that it was stupid thinking his dad would want him. Mike didn't even know him, so why would he care about him? He went back to live with his grandparents for awhile and still couldn't handle living with them, so he went to live with Joey after his grandmother kicked him out. He started stealing money from Joey's mom, and he got into a fight with Joey and Joey kicked him out. From there, he went to Snake's, where Snake let him sleep on the porch until they too got into a fight. He barely graduated from high school, and the biggest mistake he made came after graduation; he started drinking, and one day he went to a party hosted by his friend Lucy and her boyfriend Bronco at Bronco's house and he got drunk. He made the mistake of thinking he could drive while intoxicated and drove Lucy to the store to get more chips for her party after he had a fight with Snake. To make a long story short, he hit a car and killed a two year old little boy and blinded and crippled Lucy. As a result, he was sentenced to ten years in prison. He had a lot of time to himself to think during those ten years. He thought he finally had everything under control once he'd been released, but he was wrong. Once he was out, he started drinking again. Strangely enough, he was drunk at his ten year high school reunion where he had reunited with his old friends, and among them was Lucy. She had finally gotten most of her eyesight back but had to wear special glasses to be able to see, and she could walk with a cane. It was at his high school reunion where he realized he needed more help because he didn't want to live his life that way anymore, and Lucy urged him to get it by joining Alcoholics Anonymous. She told him she'd forgiven him for what he did years ago, which was something he really needed to hear. He joined A.A. and completed the program with flying colors. He had now been sober for two years, and it was the best thing he'd ever done for himself. He found himself a decent apartment in his old hometown that he could actually afford and landed an excellent job that he absolutely loved going to every day. Most importantly, though, he got his old friends back, and that meant a lot to him considering he had no family.

He pulled into the parking lot of St. Michael's Hospital and went inside. He took the elevator up to the third floor and once he got off the elevator he stopped at a nurse's station.

"Katie!" He said excitedly when a younger nurse turned around to see him. "How was B.C.?"

"Wheels, hi! It was GREAT!" Katie said as she took a seat. "Todd and I LOVED it there!"

"So I take it the honeymoon was, um. . .let's see, how can I put this without sounding dirty. . .'Romantic'?"

Katie laughed. "Yes, very! So how have you been?"

"I'm doin'!"

"Good! So there's still no 'Mrs. Wheeler' yet, huh?"

Wheels shrugged his shoulders. His dating life, or lack thereof, depressed him. He would love more than anything to fall in love with a beautiful woman, but his track record wasn't that great. If he was graded on dating and romance, he'd have at least a D.

"No, not yet. Not even a candidate for the position at this point in time."

"Don't worry," Katie replied. "You'll find her, I know you will. And when you do she'll be very lucky to have you!"

"Thanks." He said, his cheeks blushing. "Hey, you got my stuff for me?"

"Right here!" She said as she handed him a think manilla envelope full of papers. "I think you're in room 312 this time."

"Great!" He said. "That's the best one! Well, I'm gonna get out of here so I can go set up, so I'll see ya!"

"Later!"

Wheels turned and walked down the hall. He had met Katie when he first started working at the hospital. She was just finishing up nursing school. The two had become friends, and they even tried dating for awhile but that was disastrous. Soon after they broke up, she met Todd, who was also a nurse, and the two of them married that summer. He was over Katie by now. As cute and sweet as she was, he realized it never would have worked out between them.

He walked down the hospital corridor to the Substance Abuse wing, went through the double doors and walked to room 312. Once he was in the room, he took out a sheet of paper. "Thirteen". He said to himself. He needed to get thirteen chairs and set them up.

Upon his completion of Alcoholics Anonymous, Wheels was offered a job at the hospital mentoring and somewhat counseling recovering teen alcoholics. He had been referred to the job by Jeff, his A.A. counselor. Jeff had thought that given his experiences as a teenager and young adult and the fact that he overcame his own addiction, Wheels would be a perfect candidate for the job. The hospital administration did, too, and they gave him the job. He was one of three mentors for teenagers there and was often the most sought after. He loved the kids he worked with and instead of trying to be an authority figure to them he tried to be more of a friend to them, since most of the kids he dealt with just needed a friend to talk to that could help them and would just listen to them. He shared his experiences and knowledge with them and helped them work through their recoveries. He was still required to check up on them, though, and any time something was wrong he was required to report it to their counselors. He'd helped lots of kids, some of which had come back to help him with other groups once they'd completed their own recoveries.

There were only six chairs in the room, so Wheels headed to the hospital basement to see if he could find more. He loaded eight chairs on to a cart and took them back upstairs. He set the chairs up in a circle. He'd found that by setting the chairs up like this, it forced everyone to be a part of the conversation as everyone could be seen.

After setting the chairs up, he headed back outside to his Pontiac Sunfire to carry in some posters he always brought with him on the first day he met with his group. The posters contained information on drinking, alcoholism, death statistics, and newspaper articles about drunk driving. He also carried in a small boom box and a book of CDs to be used for his own pleasure while he was setting everything up and waiting for the kids to arrive.

It was now 9:30 AM and Wheels had everything set up and ready for the kids. He was now filling out some paperwork and waiting for them to start arriving. At 9:45, the first two showed up. A girl who looked to be about 16 poked her head around the door.

Wheels looked up.

"Hi!" He said, putting away his paperwork. Are you here for the Teen Outreach and Recovery Program?" He asked the girl.

"Uh huh." She shyly responded.

"Come on in and have a seat!"

"This is it!" She said to someone else behind her. A boy walked in with her.

"Just go ahead and pick a chair, guys. It doesn't make any difference which one."

The rest of the group filed in shortly before 10 AM. The last one to show up was a tall, medium built, boisterous African American girl who looked and sounded a little tough and carried a chip on her shoulders. She reminded Wheels of a girl named Tabi that he went to high school with. Tabi was a bully and hung around with other bullies. Her and her friends lived to cause problems for other kids.

"OK." Wheels said as he shut door. "We've got a lot of ground to cover today, so let's get started! First off, my name is Derek Wheeler, but most of my friends call me Wheels. You can call me whichever name you choose, but please DON'T call me 'Mr. Wheeler!' My dad was Mr. Wheeler, and I really don't like being that formal, anyway. We'll start off by taking attendance and then we'll get to know each other a little more."

He grabbed his attendance sheet.

"Angela Baker?"

"Here." Angela was the shy girl he'd met earlier. She didn't seem real interested in talking to anyone.

"Zackery Best?"

"Yo! I go by Zack!"

"OK then, Zack." Zack was a tall, lanky guy with really dark, almost black hair. He looked a little like Joey's stepson Craig, except Zack was taller.

"Hector Bustamante?"

"Yeah, I'm here." Hector was tall, heavy set, and Hispanic. He was the kind of guy who looked like he could really hurt you if you made him mad enough.

"Ariella Clark?"

"What?" Ariella answered. Everyone else laughed.

"OK, 'here'." Wheels said as he checked her name off on the list.

"ChristaLynne Cranson?"

ChristaLynne raised her had. "Here." She quietly said.

"How 'bout Cameron Downer?"

"Here." Cameron was tall and built like a football player. Wheels guessed that he probably was.

"Dynah Dustin?"

"Here."

"Jayci Kinderson?"

"Here!" Jayci muttered as she rolled her eyes. Jayci was the tough black girl.

"Kristin LaRock?"

"Right here." Kristin seemed like she was a nice kid who had just gotten herself into a lot of trouble and fallen in with a bad crowd of kids. Wheels talked to her for a few minutes just before they started.

"Benjamin Roscoe?"

"I go by Benji, sir." Benji was short with curly blond hair. He was also a little shy.

"Travis Teegarden?

"Here." Travis said as he raised his hand.

"Melanie Van?"

"That's me!" A girl with light brown hair replied.

"And last but not least, Cody Zarchinski?"

Nobody answered.

"Cody?" He asked again.

Still no answer.

"OK, no Cody! Well, let's begin! As I said before, my name is Derek Wheeler, but you can call me Wheels. I'll tell you some more about myself in a bit, but first I want to cover a few ground rules and get to know a little more about you guys. I think we're gonna have a lot of fun and learn a lot of stuff. We'll laugh, we'll cry. It'll be the best of times and it'll be the worst of times. I just want you guys to know that I'm not here to preach at you, I know how much you guys hate that because I hate it, too!"

A few of the kids laughed.

"What I really want is for all of us to become friends. I don't want to be an authority figure, I want to be friends with you guys. I want you guys to feel like you can talk to me about whatever is going on in your lives without feeling threatened. Everything we talk about, be it between just you and me or us as a whole group, will not leave this room. I'm not gonna go home and tell all of my friends that Cameron likes to dress up like Shirley Temple on the weekends, for instance."

The group erupted in laughter.

"I don't want you guys doing that kind of stuff, either." Wheels continued. "By the way, I was just using you as an example, Cameron. You don't actually do that, do you?"

"Why yes, how did you know?" Cameron joked. "No, I don't, seriously!"

"That's good because if you did you'd need more help that ANYONE in this hospital can give you!" Wheels replied, laughing. "See? I'm hoping we can have more candid conversations like that! But, and this is a very strong BUT, if I see any of you guys doing something or even hear of you doing something that could be detrimental to your recovery I have to report it to your counselors, OK? I really don't want to have to do that and I don't want to hurt you guys, but part of my job is making sure you guys get extra help if you need it, OK? Oh, and I guess most of you know by now that we'll be meeting three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Oh, and for those of you that actually stick around long enough to complete the whole course of the program, I have a special surprise for you guys at the end, but it's a secret and I'm not telling you what it is! Now I want to hear about you guys!"

They went around the circle, and each one of the kids took turns talking about themselves and their experiences with alcohol. Most of the kids suffered from depression or had come from alcoholic families. Some said they drank just to fit in with their friends, and others did it for other reasons. Some of them, such as Jayci and Angela refused to talk. Wheels was OK with that; they'd talk when they were ready to talk.

"So what about you?" Hector asked.

"Well, I'm 32 years old and I live here in Toronto in an apartment on Gerrard Street. I grew up here and graduated from Degrassi High School in 1991. I'm single and don't have any kids of my own, just a cat named Sheba. And I, too, have experiences with alcohol. My parents died when I was 14 in a wreck caused by a drunk driver. I had a really difficult time dealing with that for a long time. When they were killed I lived with my grandparents for awhile. I ran away from them once to go live with my biological father-I was adopted as a baby-and when I found him I realized he didn't want me, so I went back to my grandparents. I ended up getting myself into a lot of trouble because I lied to my grandma a lot and refused to help her around the house, so she kicked me out. I lived with my best friend Joey for a month, until he kicked me out of his house for stealing money from his mom and for just being a jerk. My other best friend, Snake, let me sleep on his porch for awhile until we got into a fight, but after that I was on my own. I fought with Snake and Joey a lot after that. It seemed a whole friendship was ruined because of me. I will never forget the summer after I graduated from high school. That was the worst summer of my life. I'd just gotten a new car-OK, it was basically a piece of scrap metal, nothing like I drive now-and I spent most of the summer drinking beer and working on my car. Another friend of mine had a party one day, and I went. I started drinking while I was there and got into another big fight with Snake. We got a little physical, and some friends tried to calm us down by getting us away from each other. One of them asked me to take her to the store to get some chips in my 'great' car, which I agreed to do. Of course, I took my beer with me." Wheels paused for a moment. "Getting in that car to take her to the store was the stupidest thing I've ever done. On our way to the store I ended up hitting a car and killing a two year old little boy, and I also crippled and partially blinded my friend. I went to jail and was charged for criminal negligence causing injury times two, death, and drunk driving. I pleaded guilty to all charges and spent the next 10 years in prison. While I was incarcerated I had a lot of time to think. I thought about how I should've taken responsibility for my life, how I should've never gotten into that car drunk, how badly I'd hurt my friend, and I felt terrible for what I did to the little boy and his family. I myself wanted to die. Then I realized that I had to keep fighting. Things would get better, and with a little work I could make them better. I'd come to realize that my friends were right when they said I blamed my parents' deaths on everything instead of blaming myself when things didn't work out. Joey and I became friends again, but Snake and I just recently reconciled. Three summers ago I was let out, I guess they let me out 'for good behavior'." Wheels said, in an attempt to make a joke. "I was able to attend my 10 year high school reunion. Snake was less than thrilled to hear that I'd been let out, and no matter how much I tried to convince him he just wouldn't forgive me. He didn't understand how I could drink like that when my own parents died because of a drunk driver. We finally reconciled last year after Snake was diagnosed with Leukemia and he'd been having thoughts of suicide. We bonded again because we'd both had thoughts of wanting to die. We picked up right where we left off, and are back to being best friends again. As for my other friend, I saw her at my reunion, too. She now has her vision back and can walk again, and said she'd forgiven me for what I'd done to her a long time ago, which is something I'm not sure I'd ever be able to do if I was her. I had started drinking again after I was released, and at our reunion she urged me to get help by joining Alcoholics Anonymous. I completed the A.A. program and was offered a job here at the hospital doing this, and now here I am, trying to help you guys so you won't up like I did."

Wheels got up from his chair. "Look around this room." He said. "Everyone that is in here is here because of a problem with alcohol. Do you realize that at least 75 percent of Canadian teenagers drink? If you don't do something now, some of you that are in this room right now will die from alcohol, and while the rest of you probably won't, there are still serious problems for you. For the ladies that are in here, do you realize that if you were to become pregnant and drank during the pregnancy your baby could be born with serious birth defects and mental problems due to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and in some cases might not even be able to survive? And if that baby did survive and could live a fairly normal life he or she has a 50 percent chance of becoming an alcoholic? If your parents are also alcoholics, the baby's chances for becoming an alcoholic are 80 percent. The same goes for you, guys. "

Kristin spoke up.

"I started drinking when I was 15. I drank because I was depressed. I was living in Calgary at the time, and my best friend died in a house fire. I'd known him since we were babies. We grew up together. When he died, I felt horrible. I shut everyone out of my life, and I felt terrible about myself. I also felt like dying. I just didn't care anymore. I didn't care about my other friends, I didn't care about my family, and I didn't care about myself. So I started drinking to feel better. When I was drunk it was like there was nothing wrong, and I lived for that next drink. When I moved here to Toronto with my mom, I made new friends at school who also drank. We would go out three or four nights in a row to their houses and just drink until we were so drunk we didn't even know where we were. My mom didn't know what we were doing, and one night she had to work and asked me to stay home and babysit my little brother who is only five years old. I was so upset that I couldn't go out with my friends that as soon as she was gone I got the keys out to her liquor cabinet and downed a whole bottle of Vodka that night. My little brother asked me to color with him. I was so angry that I had to stay home instead of going out with my friends and so drunk that I remember just going after him when he asked me that. I threw him to the ground and just started beating him up. . ." Kristin stopped so she could wipe the tears from her eyes. "I told him it was all his fault. If he wasn't here I would've been able to go to my friend's house. He was all black and blue and his nose was bleeding. He kept saying 'Krissy, stop! You're hurting me!', and he was crying. I finally got up and let him go, and then I started feeling really horrible for what I did to him. I really love my little brother and if I was in my right state of mind I never would've hurt him. Right after I let him go I remember thinking to myself, 'What happened to you?' I was this horrible, mean person and not a lot of people liked me anymore. I picked Caleb-that's my brother-up from the floor and apologized to him and I told him I was going to call a cab and take him to the hospital because I'd hurt him so bad. We got to the hospital, and while he was in with the doctor I called my mom and told her everything. She came straight to the hospital and we talked for a really long time. We both started crying and I asked her if she could ever forgive me. I remember her telling me 'Krissy, you're going to make a lot of mistakes in your life, and I'll always love you and forgive you'. When the doctor came out and told me I'd broken one of Caleb's arms, one of his legs and his nose, I decided to check myself into rehab that night. I didn't want to be that way anymore. I'd been drinking for two years and I didn't like the person I'd become. All of this just happened recently, last month to be exact. I'm now going on one month sober, and you know what? I learned that my 'friends' weren't really 'friends'. Once I told them I was giving up drinking, they stopped talking to me and I don't even see them anymore. That's OK, though. I don't need friends like that. My counselor is helping me deal with my friend's death, and she was the one that recommended that I join this program because she thinks I could make some other, better friends here."

Wheels smiled at Kristin. "I'm really glad you realized you had a problem and wanted to fix it." He said. "I only wish I'd been able to do that myself."

They spent the next hour just talking about why they even started drinking in the first place and when they realized they needed help. Some of the kids, such as Jayci, Ariella, Zack, and Hector had gotten into so much trouble with the law that they were mandated to be in the program, whether they realized they had a problem or not, and Wheels had to submit weekly reports to the Toronto Police for their probation officers just to show that they showed up for all their sessions. If they missed a day, he was required to report that, too, and the offender usually got into trouble.

"OK, let's wrap it up!" Wheels said, clapping his hands together. "When we meet again on Wednesday I have something special planned, so please be here! I'll see you all on Wednesday!"

Once everyone got up and left, Wheels stacked up all of the chairs except for one, which he kept out for himself. Some of the kids stayed to talk to him, while the rest of them left.

Wheels' favorite part of his job was the kids. He loved working with them, and for the most part they all got along and had fun together. He also felt that talking to these kids helped him, too, since he could so easily identify with them. Lots of them seemed apprehensive of talking to him at first, and then once he mentioned that he too had struggled with an alcohol addiction as teenager, he could almost see them instantly relax. When he talked about his own problems, it was like he was saying "It's OK, I know just exactly what you're going through, and I won't judge you or make you feel bad."

After the last one left, Wheels decided it was time for lunch. He had a craving for Chicken Salad and crackers, so he locked up the room and went to the cafeteria to buy some food.

Hospital food has always had a bad reputation, but Wheels honestly didn't think the food at St. Michael's was that bad. He was sure he'd get tired of eating it if he ever had to be in the hospital for an extended period of time, but it was good for lunch. They always had Chicken and Tuna salads, sandwiches, soups, and several different appetizers and deserts. The cafeteria itself wasn't exactly a five-star restaurant, but the food wasn't bad.

He ordered his food and took it back to his room. He usually worked until four thirty or five o'clock on the days he had group at the hospital, and the rest of the time he worked at home. There was always paperwork to be done and things to be planned. For the next group meeting he'd carefully organized to have some very special speakers come and talk to the kids about having alcoholic parents and alcoholic friends. Snake and Lucy were going to come and talk about what it was like to have Wheels as a friend when he was a teenager, and Lucy was going to tell the kids what effect the accident they were involved in had on her life. Emma's friend Sean also agreed to come and talk about what it was like living with alcoholic parents, as was Ellie Nash, another student from Degrassi. He was thinking that the kids would mostly relate to Sean and Ellie because of their ages.

At four thirty Wheels was ready to call it a day. He handed in some papers to the same nurse's station where he checked in, and headed home. He was going to be busy when he got home, too. He had a few loads of laundry to be washed and dried. Parts of Toronto were still having problems with the water main break, so he hoped there was water at home.

"Junk, junk, bill, junk, junk, bill." He said while going through his mail after picking it up at the mailbox by the landlord's office. Then he came across a white sheet of paper folded in thirds. "Great!" He said as he read the piece of paper. It was a note from his landlord, telling everyone that the main break was worse than suspected, and it would be at least a couple of days before the water was back on. So that meant no laundry. He couldn't just sit there and wait for it to get fixed, either. He was wearing his last clean pair of underwear. So, on his way back to his apartment he got his phone out of his pocket and dialed the Nelson-Simpson residence.

"Hello?" Emma said as she answered the phone while trying to balance baby Jack on her hip.

"Egah!" Jack screeched in delight as he grabbed a fistful of her hair.

"Emma? Hi, it's Wheels."

"Oh, hey!" She said "Ouch, let go of my hair!" She said to Jack as he she pried his fingers off of her hair. "What's goin' on?"

"I was wondering if you guys had water over there."

"Yeah, finally! After it was off most of the day!"

"Ya think I might be able to come over and do some laundry? There's no water at my apartment right now."

"Sure, come on over! It's just me and Jack tonight and I could so use some adult conversation!"

"Great, thanks Em! I gotta load everything up in the car, but I'll be there in about 15 minutes!"

"OK, see you then!"

"Bye, Em!"

Wheels went up to his apartment and let Sheba in, who was waiting at the patio door for him. He then loaded two laundry baskets full of laundry, detergent, fabric softener and bleach, and took them out to the car, stashing them in the trunk.

It only took him about five minutes to get to Snake's house, which was four blocks away from his apartment. He could easily walk there, but not with two baskets full of laundry!

Upon arriving at the Nelson-Simpson house, he was greeted by Emma, who was holding a sleeping Jack.

"I'm gonna go put him down upstairs and then I'll be back." She whispered. "He hasn't had a nap since this morning!"

Wheels nodded.

Emma took Jack upstairs and put him in his crib, then came back down to the living room and turned on the baby monitor so she could hear him if he needed her. Wheels finished carrying in his laundry, taking it down to the basement and starting up the first load in the washer, then came back up to the living room where Emma was, holding a twenty dollar bill and the phone.

"Mom left money for pizza." She said. "You hungry?"

"Yeah, some pizza actually sounds good!" Wheels replied, taking a seat on the couch.

"Pineapple and mushroom OK?"

Wheels made a face. "No pineapple." He said "I can't understand why anyone would want to put pineapple on their pizza!"

"It's good!" Emma said. "How 'bout a half and half? I'll get my half with what I want on it, and you can get your half with what you want on it?"

"OK. Pepperoni, sausage and bacon, then."

Emma called and ordered the pizza. It would be there within the next half hour.

"So how's school?" Wheels asked as she took a seat on the couch next to him.

Emma rolled her eyes. "It's a nightmare!" She said. "Only three weeks into grade nine and just today I had three tests. One in English, one in Science and one in Algebra!"

Wheels clenched his eyes shut. "Oooo, OUCH!" He said. "Sorry about that, especially Algebra! That was always my worst subject in school and I wasn't really good in school at all! '23x+49 equals 206. Solve for X and simplify your answer.'" He said, quoting an algebraic equation. "Thanks for bringing back memories of high school Algebra, Em!" He laughed.

"Well at least my teachers were nice enough to not give any homework tonight. I've been studying for the last four nights!"

"Hey, is Sean still coming on Wednesday?" Wheels asked.

"Ugh, Sean!" Emma said, rolling her eyes. "I think so. We don't really talk that much anymore since we broke up over the summer, but I think so."

"Great!"

"So who else is going to be there?" Emma asked. "I mean, I know Sean and Snake are going to be there, but who else did you get?"

"Lucy and Ellie Nash. Lucy wants to make a 'dramatic' appearance, though. She's bringing her old wheelchair, cane and glasses. When she comes into the room she'll be in the wheelchair wearing the glasses, then she's going to take her cane and get up out of the wheelchair and walk around the room with the cane, then she's going to throw the cane down and take off her glasses. She really wants to show the kids how badly she was screwed up in the accident and how she did recover but it was a long and difficult recovery. Snake wants to talk about forgiveness, and Sean and Ellie are going to talk about what it was like growing up with alcoholic parents. You should really see if you can come and listen to them, Em."

"I don't know," Emma said. "I really would like to, but I just don't know if I should or not. I'd be weird being there with Sean being there."

Wheels stared at her. "C'mon, Em!" He said. "You're in school with Sean all day, how much more different could it be? You have classes with him, don't you?"

"Yeah, but. . ."

He was still staring at her.

"OK! I'll think about it!" She said.

Wheels shook his head and laughed at her.

"Hey, you wanna watch a movie tonight while you're waiting for your laundry to get done?" She asked, trying to get the subject off of Sean. "I just rented Bruce Almighty. It's supposed to be really funny!"

"Why not? If I have to stay here to do laundry I might as well, I've got nothin' else to do!"

The pizza came and the two of them watched them watched the movie, with Wheels having to leave it a couple of times to put clothes in the washer and dryer and Emma having to leave for Jack. The movie finished up just before 10, right around the time that Snake and Spike arrived home from their date.

The end credits were rolling just as Snake and Spike came in the front door. Wheels turned around to see them from the couch.

"Oh hey, guys!" He greeted them. "Hope you don't mind me being here! The water is still off at my apartment and I needed to do some laundry, so I called Emma and asked her if I could come over and use the washer and dryer. Besides, I think we both needed the extra company. We are the 'Dateless Duo' right now, ya know!"

"Oh that's OK!" Spike reassured him as she took off her shoes. "We're always glad to have you!"

"So whatcha guys been watchin'?" Snake asked.

"Bruce Almighty." Emma answered as she got up and took the DVD out of the DVD player and put it back in the case.

"I heard that's supposed to be really funny!" Snake said.

"It was HILARIOUS!" Wheels replied. "But we won't ruin it for you guys! You HAVE to see it, though!"

Weels stood up and walked to the door.

"Well I should probably be going home now, it's getting late!" He said. "But I'll see you guys later? Like Wednesday?" He asked Snake and Emma.

"Yeah, I'll be there on Wednesday." Snake said. "I've already got a sub lined up."

"MAYBE!" Emma said.

"OK, MAYBE!" He said, smiling at Emma. "I'll see you guys later!" He said to Snake and Spike.

With that, he waved and left to go home.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Can I help you? The girl working behind the counter asked as she pulled up a tray and set it on the counter next to the register.

"Yeah. A large French Vanilla Latté and one Blueberry Muffin." Wheels replied as he pulled his wallet out of his back pocket.

"5.25, please."

Wheels paid the girl and watched her go around the corner and a few minutes later return with his Latte. She put the Latte down on the tray, then turned to face the donuts and muffins behind her. "Blueberry, right?" She asked as she pulled a piece of paper out of a box.

"Yeah, please." Wheels answered.

The girl picked up a muffin and put it on his tray.

"Thank you!" She said very cheerfully. Wheels thought she was a little too cheerful for 8 AM.

He took his tray and took a seat over by a window and started to eat his muffin. He normally didn't go out for breakfast, but he wanted a Blueberry Muffin and Latté from Cabana Joe's that morning. It just sounded good.

Cabana Joe's was crawling with people that morning, most of them were people going to work and students. Wheels often wondered how many of the people ate there regularly, as it seemed he always saw the same people there.

A really pretty, tall, slender woman walked in and ordered something to eat. Wheels watched her as she ordered and as she picked up her tray. She was really pretty, but he was afraid to even approach her. "She's WAY out of your league, buddy!" He told himself. Besides, she was probably unavailable, anyway.

She was looking around the room for somewhere to sit. She caught Wheels' glance, and he quickly looked down. She walked over to his table.

"Wheels?" She said.

"Huh?" Wheels said as he snapped his head up. How did she know his name?

"WHEELS!" She exclaimed. "God, I'm so happy to see you! How have you been? I haven't seen you in forever!"

_ "Somebody pinch me, I'm dreaming!" _Wheels thought to himself. _ "She knows my name!"_

"Um, I'm alright!" He answered with a hint of uncertainty in his voice.She frowned. "You don't know who I am, do you?"

"Sorry, but my mind's drawing a blank!"

"It's me, Heather!"

"Heather? Heather Farrell?"

"Uh huh!" She said, nodding her head yes.

"Wow!" He said. "You look. . . absolutely great!"

Heather blushed. "Thanks. You too! Can I sit here?"

"Sure, go right ahead! I thought you were living up north?"

Heather took a sip from her cappuccino. "I was," she said as she put it back down "But I decided I'd had enough of that and wanted to come home, sooo. . .here I am!"

"The last I knew Erica was a teacher in New York. Is she still there?"

"Yeah, she's living in New York City, and teaches kindergarten there. She loves it there, and guess what? She's getting MARRIED!"

"Wow! Next time you see her tell I said congratulations!"

"I will!" Heather said as she took a bite from her donut. "So what are you doing now?"

Wheels drank from his Latté. "Well, let's see. I have officially stayed sober for two years,"

"Go you!"

"And now I work at St. Michael's Hospital as a mentor in the Teen Outreach and Recovery Program. I help kids that are battling alcohol addiction."

"Wow, a completely changed Wheels, I'm surprised!" Heather said, laughing. "Do you still live here in Toronto?"

"Yeah, I have an apartment on Gerrard Street. So what about you?"

Heather sat down her cappuccino she'd been drinking. "Well, I _was _working in the Northwest Territories in Yellowknife as a Program Manager for CBKL Radio. I met a guy named Jonathan while working there, and we fell in love. We got engaged last summer, and were set to be married this fall, but then I found out he hadn't been completely honest with me and was sleeping with this one chick, Melissa, and we had a really nasty break up. From there on out things started to fall apart for me there, so I started looking for a new job, and I was online one day looking at jobs and I saw that CRAZ FM had an opening for a Program Manager, so I applied for it and I guess they liked me because here I am! I've only been there just a couple of weeks but I love it there, and it's so good to be back home! Yellowknife is nice, but I love Toronto!"

Wheels watched Heather as she ate. He really wanted to ask her out, but was scared to. He kept thinking back to the time when they were in high school and she and Erica had a party and the two of them were alone together and they started making out. What an awkward situation that was! Back then he liked her as a friend, but not as a girlfriend.

_ "Snap out of it!"_ He told himself. _"That was 13 years ago! If you're interested now, ask her out! If you don't, she can't say 'yes'!"_

Her eyes caught his gaze. He was smiling at her.

"What? Do I have something on my teeth?" She said as she started digging through her purse, looking for a mirror.

"No! No, there's nothing wrong with your teeth!" Wheels said. "I was just thinking. . .Nah, forget it!"

_ "ASK HER!" _His mind demanded.

"What? Spit it out!"

"Well, urm. . .maybe. . .would you. . .like to go out with me sometime?" He could suddenly feel his cheeks turn very warm. They were probably very red by now.

Heather smiled at him. "I'd love to," she replied "but. . ."

"Oh, that's OK. I understand." Wheels looked down at the floor.

"Would you let me finish? I was going to say "I'd love to, but first I want to get your phone number so I can call you!"

"Oh!" Wheels' face lit up. _"She said YES!"_ His mind screamed. "Here!" He said as he scribbled it down on a piece of paper. Heather scribbled hers down for him as well.

"How 'bout Friday night?" He asked. "We could go bowling or something!"

"I'd say you have a date! Look, I gotta get going right now, but what if I call you later and we work out all the details?"

"Fine by me!"

"OK, then!" Heather said as she stood up. "I'll call you sometime today and we can talk about it!"

"Alright!" Wheels replied. "But hey, if I don't answer my phone that's because I have group today and I usually turn it off or silence it for that, but leave a message in voicemail and I'll call you back, OK?"

"OK. Bye!" And with that, Heather turned and left.

Wheels sank back in his chair. A date for Friday night! He hadn't been on a date in a really long time, so he was very excited. He jumped up from the table and took his tray to the garbage can, emptying the contents on the tray into the trash and putting the tray on top of the garbage can. He danced all the way out to his car.

"Oh, Sherrie, you're all alone. Holds on, holds on. . ." Wheels sang along to the radio as he happily moved around the room setting up chairs and the poster boards containing pictures of the accident he caused as a teenager that sent him to prison, the obituary of the two year old little boy he killed, articles about his conviction, and an article on Lucy. After seeing Heather and getting a date for Friday, he was so happy he felt like he was flying and just high on life. He was normally a happy guy, but even more so that morning. Even the rest of the hospital staff noticed it. Chad, who was a Registered Nurse, saw him earlier that morning and wanted to know what he was on because he seemed to be flying higher than a kite. A very chipper Wheels just told him that he was so happy because life was great. Chad looked at him like he was crazy, and maybe he was, but Wheels didn't care.

"Oh, Sherrie, you're all alone. Holds on, holds on!"

There was a knock at the door. Wheels looked up to see Snake and Lucy there. Lucy was in her old wheelchair which she didn't use anymore, and Snake was carrying her cane.

"Hi, guys! C'mon in!" Wheels said as he welcomed them into the room.

"_Somebody's_ just a _little_ happy!" Lucy commented.

"Yeah, well that's because _somebody _has a date for Friday night!" Wheels said, beaming.

"Woo hoo, Wheels!" She exclaimed.

"Do we know the lucky lady?" Snake asked.

"Yep!"

"Is it somebody who works here?" Lucy asked as she stood up.

"Nope!" Wheels smugly said. He loved to keep his friends guessing about his personal life. It was so much fun!

"C'mon, SPILL THE BEANS!" Lucy impatiently exclaimed.

"Let's see, how can I put this?" Wheels pondered out loud. "Oh, OK! I got it! There's two of them, and although they look alike, they are completely different people! You've known them for years!"

"We've known them for years. . ." Snake repeated. "Did we go to school with them?"

Wheels nodded his head yes.

"We've known them for. . .Oooh, I think I know now!" Snake said, remembering back to high school.

"Wait a minute, was I friends with them?" Lucy asked. Now she was catching on!

"Uh huh!" Wheels replied, still with a smug smile on his face.

"You ran into Heather or Erica, didn't you?" She asked, punching him in the shoulder.

"Heather! This morning at Cabana Joe's! And we're going bowling on Friday night!"

"Wheels, you stud!" Snake joked with him. "I didn't know you had it in you!"

"Shut up!" Wheels said, playfully shoving Snake. "Anyway, I like her. She's gotten really pretty!"

"Aww, Wheels is in love!" Lucy joked. "Seriously, I think you guys would be good couple!"

Lucy saw the poster boards with the pictures and articles and went to look at them. When Wheels made the collages, he also included pictures of Lucy and himself that they'd had professionally done the summer before they entered grade 13 for the Degrassi High yearbook. There were also pictures of them with their friends, as well as some with just them. They looked so happy and carefree, like nothing in the world mattered to them. It was really painful for both Lucy and Wheels to look at those pictures. They reminded Lucy of being stuck in the hospital and when she was told she may never walk or see again. For Wheels, they brought back feelings of guilt, sadness, being scared, and extreme remorse. When he was told that the little boy died because of him, he started feeling like some sort of horrible monster and he suddenly wished he'd been the one to die instead of the kid. He knew just exactly how the kids parents must've felt since he'd lost his own parents the same way. The day that his trial was held he plead guilty and the little boy's parents were there. He kept apologizing to them, saying he knew just exactly how they felt, but his sincere and heartfelt apologizes fell on deaf ears. If he'd known he was going to kill someone by getting into that car drunk he never would've done it.

Lucy looked at the pictures and articles and started crying. Seeing Lucy cry like that made Wheels cry.

"Here, Luce." He said as he walked over there and put his arm around her. Lucy hugged him, still crying. "C'mon," he said guiding her back to her chair. "Sit down. It's OK to cry when you look at those pictures and read those articles. Trust me, I've done it many times!"

There was another knock at the door. This time it was Ellie and Sean.

"Oh cool, there's Sean and Ellie!" Wheels said, spinning around. "Come in!"

The two of them walked in together.

"Thanks for coming in, you guys!" Wheels said to them. "You guys have any problems getting out of school to come here?"

"No, not really." Ellie answered.

Sean rolled his eyes. "Are you kidding? Radditch gave me the third degree when I signed out for the day! But I owe you one for getting me out of school for the day!"

"I'll call the school and talk to him for ya later!" Wheels said, taking a seat. "Did you have a hard time, Ellie?"

"No, not really." Ellie answered.

"Is Emma coming?" Wheels asked Snake.

"She can't." Snake said, sitting down. "She's helping another student study for a test today at lunch. She wanted to, but Ms. Kwan decided to pair her up with that student because that student's falling behind and not understand the material."

Wheels understood. Emma was an excellent student, so it made sense that she'd be asked to help out another student who didn't understand what he or she was being taught.

Snake, Sean and Ellie sat quietly in their chairs while Wheels took attendance. Lucy, wanting to make her grand appearance, left the room in her wheelchair, leaving her cane behind standing up in a corner near the door so she could easily grab it when she got back.

"OK," Wheels said as he put his pencil and attendance sheet down. "I told you guys last time that I had something special planned for today. You'll notice there's some new faces in here today. This guy sittin' on my left has been one of my best friends since we were in junior high. His name is Archie Simpson, but you guys can call him Snake. Snake is the Media Immersion teacher at Degrassi Community School. Both of us, by the way, are Degrassi grads! Sitting next to Snake is Sean Cameron. Sean is 15 and in grade nine at Degrassi, and sitting next to Sean is Ellie Nash, another Degrassi student. Ellie is 15 and in grade 10. I also have another one of my old high school friends coming, but she's running late because special accommodations had to be made for her to get here. Snake is here to talk to you guys about what I was like as a teenager and the problems I got myself into, as is my other friend that's running late, and Ellie and Sean are here to talk to you about what it's like living with alcoholic parents, which is something I know some of you have some experience with."

"Hey, Snake! You got any good stories I could blackmail Wheels with?" Travis piped up jokingly.

"Come see me later!" Snake replied, smiling at Travis.

"Yeah, you just remember that I'm one of the people that stands in the way, along with your 12-step program, of determining when you can successfully get out of rehab, Trav!" Wheels said. "And don't forget that I also have some pretty hilarious and embarrassing stories about you too, Snake!"

"Ooooh!" The kids all said in unison.

There was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it!" Sean said as he got up from his chair. It was Lucy. He went to the door and held it open for her so she could wheel herself in.

"Lucy!" Wheels said, waving at her. "Hi!"

"Hi, Wheels!" Lucy said. She wheeled herself around the room and came back for her cane. After securing the cane around her wrist, she awkwardly walked around the room with the cane. The kids were whispering about her, and she could hear them. When she she got back to where she started from, she took the cane off of her arm, stood up, and took her glasses off.

"I'm Lucy Fernandez." She said to the kids. "I'm a filmmaker, and I want to tell you guys my story."

Lucy started telling the kids all about her life before the accident. "I was class Valedictorian of Degrassi High School and graduated in 1991." She said. "Well, actually my class finished up our last year at Schuyler High, since Degrassi was closed that year for renovations. Two of my classmates, Snake and Wheels, are here today. The summer before I was to go off to University was great. I had a great boyfriend named Bronco, and I hung out a lot with my one of my best friends, Caitlin, and Caitlin and I were supposed to go to University together and be roommates. I had a lot of parties and went to a lot of parties that summer. It was great! One day Bronco had a party at his family's summer cottage, and he invited most of the people from our class to it. The day of the party, Caitlin had told me that she'd changed her mind about going to University with me and said she wanted to stay here so she could be with her then fiancé Joey, who was one grade behind us. I was really angry at her for that, because I'd made all these big plans, and now here she was, destroying them! Joey, Snake and Wheels had come to the party, too. One thing that Caitlin didn't know about Joey was that he'd been cheating on her most of the summer with another girl named Tessa. I remember Snake being really mad at Joey for doing this," She said, looking at Snake. "And Joey made a joke to Snake about not being able to get a girlfriend. That made Snake really mad, and he threatened to tell Caitlin that Joey had had sex with Tessa. Well, he didn't, at least not right away. Shortly after that, Snake got into a fight with Wheels because Wheels had called him immature and Snake told Wheels he was immature because he'd spent most of the summer drinking beer and working on his car, which Snake called 'A piece of shit'."

"It really was!" Snake recalled, giving a little chuckle.

"Hey, you and me! Out in the parking lot after this!" Wheels joked with him.

Everyone laughed.

"Anyway," Lucy continued, "It was about to get physical, so I took care of Wheels and Bronco took care of Snake. I told Wheels to take me in his "great" car to the store so I could buy some more chips. I should've used better judgement then. I knew Wheels had been drinking, as he'd been drinking a lot that summer. We got in the car and were maybe half-way to the store, when Wheels ran a stop sign and hit an oncoming car. I don't really remember much that happened after that. I know I blacked out for a little while, and when I came back to I remember hearing sirens and hearing lot of voices but I couldn't see anything. I remember thinking 'What happened?' and I was scared because I couldn't feel anything past my waist. I tried to see but I couldn't. I remember being pulled from the car and smelling smoke and being loaded up in the ambulance to be brought to the hospital. It was really scary. I remember asking one of the paramedics for green gum and I kept telling them it was time for me to go home to my mom. Then, when we were on our way to the hospital, I asked about what happened, and they told me. I started crying, and I asked about Wheels. They said he was OK except for a few minor cuts and bruises, but was being taken to jail." Lucy started crying. "I asked about the people in the other car, and one of the paramedics told me there was a two year old little boy in the other car that died."

"How long were you in the hospital?" Melanie asked as she shifted around in her chair.

"Just a little over a year." Lucy replied. "Within just a couple of months I started to get some of my vision back and I started getting some feeling back in my legs, which got a little painful. You know what it feels like when your leg or your foot falls asleep because you've been sitting down for too long? Well, imagine feeling that for 24 hours a day! Sometimes it got so painful all I could do was cry!"

"How long did it take for you to be able to walk again?" Zack asked.

"I did Physical Therapy every day for about two years after I started getting the feeling back in my legs. I was eventually able to walk with a cane, and the cane you just saw me with is the one I used while in therapy and after it. Last year I eventually learned how to walk again without the cain. I still sometimes have to use those beautiful, designer glasses to see, but my vision has definitely improved!"

"How did you feel about Wheels?" Angela asked.

"Honestly, I hated him for the longest time! Aside from his rebellious streak he had in high school, he was essentially a good kid. He had lots of friends and was always nice and respectful to everyone. I just couldn't believe what he'd done to me and what he did to that family and the little boy. I eventually forgave him, realizing that he was really messed up. I know he never intentionally meant to hurt anyone, and when I ran into him at our high school reunion shortly after he was released from prison and learned he had started drinking again, I urged him to get help, which he did, and I'm proud of him!" Lucy said, looking at Wheels. "You guys have a really great guy here to help you, so let him help you when you need it, OK?"

"So what are you doing now?" Benji asked.

"Well, I did finally get to University. I received a Master's Degree and an Honor's Bachelor Degree in Film, and I even completed a Ph.D. I own a small production company in New Mexico, which is where I live."

Snake was next to tell his story. He told all about how he met Wheels and how they'd been best friends throughout junior high and high school. He recalled the death of Wheels' parents and described what Wheels was like after that.

"When Wheels went to prison for killing the kid and injuring Lucy, I never wanted to see him or speak to him again. I honestly didn't care if he lived or died. Our friend Joey still stuck by his side, though, and I remember him trying to get me to go visit Wheels or at least write to him or talk to him on the phone. I never did any of those things. When I was told that he was out of prison, to say that I was furious would be an understatement! I honestly thought that he should've been locked up for good and the key should've been thrown away! Then last year I was diagnosed with Leukemia. Joey came to my house to take me bowling, which I really didn't want to do but my wife pretty much kicked me out of the house because she was tired of me moping around there. So I went, and guess who showed up at the bowling alley! Turns out Joey had called him before he came and picked me up and asked Wheels to meet us there. At that point in time I really felt like dying, and yet here was Wheels! We started talking and by the end of the night we were back to being friends again. I realized that life's too short to hold grudges! He'd done his time and had gotten help and it was really silly to keep holding that grudge against him. He really was messed up, and I just wish I'd been a little easier on him and been able to forgive him sooner. I guess what I'm trying to tell you guys is this: You've all hurt people you love unintentionally in the past, and just remember that no matter how bad things seem and no matter how many times you've hurt them, just remember that those people you've hurt will eventually forgive you. It might take some time, but they'll eventually come around."

Sean and Ellie talked next, and they told their stories jointly. Sean talked about living with his alcoholic parents in Wausaiga Beach and how he was now living with his older brother, Tracker, in Toronto, and Ellie talked about her mom, who was an alcoholic, her dad, who was in the Army, and how she'd began cutting herself.

"The cutting just seemed like it helped me escape the pain I was feeling at home." Ellie said. "With my mom drinking all the time and my dad being gone, I felt like I was losing control of everything. Every day was a constant stuggle, ya know? It still is! My mom is always telling me how much she 'loves' me, and I keep thinking to myself 'If you love me so much, you'd give up drinking!' The hardest thing in the world is to see people you love destroying themselves."

"It always seemed to me that my parents were always too drunk to love me or my brother." Sean said. "And there was always a lot of fighting in my house as a kid, be it between me or them, or them and Tracker. Tracker and I occasionally fought, but we're brothers, right? We're supposed to fight. I hated all the fighting. I hated the fact that it seemed like they didn't care!"

"Why are you here in Toronto now?" Hector asked Sean.

"A couple of years ago I got into a fight with a kid in Wasaga Beach and deafened him in one ear. It's not exactly something I'm proud of, but the guy was a jerk! I came here to get a fresh start."

"Hmph!" Jayci replied to Sean.

"Do you guys ever blame yourselves for your parents' drinking?" Wheels asked.

"Before I started going to group therapy, I used to think 'If I was only a better daughter, if I was someone else, she wouldn't drink.'" Ellie answered. "So, yeah, I did. But then after I got some counseling I realized that it wasn't my fault she was like that. Even if I was someone else, she'd still be an alcoholic. Her problem isn't with me, it's something much deeper than that."

"Whatever!" Jayci retorted, rolling her eyes at Ellie.

"Jayci!" Wheels scolded her.

"I guess so." Sean replied, ignoring Jayci. "I mean I've never gone as far as Ellie has with cutting myself or anything like that, but I used to think that if I was a good kid maybe they wouldn't drink anymore."

Sean and Ellie continued talking about their situations, and Jayci got up and left. Wheels really didn't want to end the discussion then, but he had to find Jayci.

"Uh, we don't usually do this," he said, "But why don't we take a short ten minute break? You guys can go get a drink or use the washroom or buy a snack or somethin', then we'll finish up our discussion, OK?"

He got up and left the room to look for Jayci. He managed to find her in a vacant room a few rooms away.

"What do YOU want?" She asked him when he entered the room and started walking closer to her. She turned her back to him.

"Whoa!" He said. "Whoa, calm down! Why'd you leave like that?"

Jayci covered her face with her hands and sat down on the floor, her back up against the wall.

"I can't go back in there!" She said, crying.

"Why not?"

"I just can't!" She cried. "I can't listen to Seth and Ellen or whatever their names are talking about their parents like that! I just can't!"

"Hit close to home?"

"You don't even know! And I'm NOT going back there!"

"Jayci, you have to! If you don't you'll go back into lockup again! Do you want that?"

Jayci looked up at the ceiling, tears streaming down her face.

"It's just that listening to those two reminds me so much of my mom and dad and my brothers and sisters!"

"What about 'em?" Wheels asked as he sat down next to her.

"My parents, they were like that! They were ALWAYS drunk! Before they divorced three years ago, all they did was drink and fight." Jayci paused to wipe her eyes and nose. "Have you ever had to clean up your mom's blood because she cut her hand on a broken vodka bottle? Or listen to your dad call her a "bitch" and a "whore" when they're in a drunken fight? Have you ever watched your dad brutally beat your brothers and sisters for dumb shit like not taking out the garbage or doing the dishes? Have you ever had him come after you because you refused to buy him more alcohol? Has your mom ever 'forgotten' to pick you up from somewhere, leaving you stranded for three or four hours, only she didn't 'forget' about you, she was just drunk off her ass? Well, have you?!"

"Can't say I have."

"The worst part of it is," Jayci said, in between tears, "I felt so horrible and ashamed about their drinking! Last year, when we were living with my dad, that was the final straw! He wanted me to go downtown to a liquor store and buy him some a bottle of rye, and I told him no, because he was already in a drunken rage. We were in the kitchen, and he was so mad that I refused to go and buy that rye for him that he picked up a chair and threw it at me. That was it! I packed up all my stuff and left, with nowhere to go and not very much money. I ended up going to a bar, and for the first time ever that night I got drunk off my ass, just so I could forget about my parents." By now her crying was starting to slow down. "Every night after that I was drunk! I took to shoplifting, stealing money from people, anything I could do just so I could have that next drink, and that's what got me here today! I was drunk one night, went into a grocery store, tried to shoplift some stuff to drink, and when I was caught by an employee the cops were called and I was arrested. I'd never been in that much trouble before!" Jayci's tears started back up again.

"Here." Wheels said as he opened his arms to her.

Jayci collapsed into them, her whole body shaking as she cried really hard.

"These tears were a long time comin', huh?" He asked her.

"Yes!" Jayci replied as she cried. She was now getting a headache because she'd been crying so hard. "The worst part is I'm not really a bad kid, but everyone thinks I am and I had to drop out of school and I really wish I could go back."

"Have you ever even tried going back?"

"Are you kidding?" Jayci said as she sat up. "I'm 17, I can't go back now!"

"Why not? There's lots of programs designed to help kids and adults who have dropped out of school and want to go back. All you have to do is ask!"

"I wish I could, but I just can't!"

Wheels got up from off the floor. He shrugged his shoulders. "It's all up to you!" He said. "But look, I should probably be going back now. I sent everyone on a break so I could come and find you. Look, if you want to today, come back with me. If you don't feel like coming back today, it's OK, you won't get in trouble for it."

"I think I'm just gonna go home to my apartment for the rest of the afternoon."

"OK, but I expect you to be back here on Friday, OK?"

"Yeah, sure."

Wheels started to walk out of the room.

"Hey!" Jayci yelled behind him.

"Yeah?" He said as he turned back around to face her.

"Thanks! You're pretty cool!"

Wheels smiled at her. To him, this was what it was all about.

"Thank you!" He replied with a smile.

Wheels arrived back home at his apartment building to find a big moving truck in the parking lot in front of his building. He was curious as to who was going or coming. He'd been told by the landlord a couple of weeks beforehand that someone might be moving into the apartment right next to his, but the landlord said she didn't know if it was for sure going to happen.

He went to go pick up his mail in the mail room. His apartment complex was the only one he knew of that had an actual room just for mail. Most other people he knew that lived in an apartment building had post office boxes outside in a sheltered area or they had to go to the post office to pick up or send their mail. Really the mailboxes in the mail room were just post office boxes themselves, they were just rented out to tenants and the cost for them was included in the monthly rent.

Wheels went and unlocked his box and pulled out his mail. Not long after he got there, a boy who looked to be about 15 or 16 and a little girl who looked to be about four or five came in. He was tall and had an average size frame, and short, spiky blonde hair and green eyes. The little girl had really long brown hair and big, brown eyes. The boy took out a set of keys and looked at them. He studied them for a few minutes.

"Hey, do you know what key unlocks the mailbox?" He asked Wheels.

"It's the short, silver flat one." Wheels answered as he glanced over his mail.

"Thanks!" The boy said. "It kinda sucks being new!"

"Oh it's OK! I always forgot what key it was when I first moved in here, too! Don't worry, you'll eventually remember it!"

"My name's Tyler, but my friends and family call me Ty." The boy said as he introduced himself. "And this is my little sister Maddie. We're just moving in here in apartment 415."

"My name's Derek, but my friends call me Wheels, and I live in 414."

"So that makes us neighbors!"

"Yeah, I guess it does!"

The three of them walked out of the mail room together and continued talking.

"So where did you live before?" Wheels asked as he pressed the "Up" button for the elevator in the hall.

"In Manitoba in Winnipeg. My dad's job transferred him here."

"I've only lived in Toronto." Wheels said as they boarded the elevator. "How old are you guys?"

"I'm 15." Tyler responded.

"I'm four!" An energetic Maddie said as she stretched her face out with her fingers and made a funny face.

"Really? You're four?!" Wheels said to her. "Do you go to school?"

"Not yet, but I will soon after my mommy gets me signed up for it tomorrow!"

"Where are you guys goin' to school at?" Wheels asked Ty as they stepped out of the elevator and onto the fourth floor of the apartment building.

"Maddie's gonna start preschool in the preschool program at Schuyler Elementary and the only high school around here that has any openings for Grade 10s is Degrassi. Mom's signing Maddie up for school tomorrow, and I'm supposed to go to Degrassi and enroll."

"Degrassi's a good school." Wheels said as they walked down the hall together toward their respective apartments. "I went there!"

"Really?"

Wheels nodded his head yes. "Graduated in '91." Then an idea hit him. "Hey, why don't I go with you tomorrow when you register for classes? I don't have to work tomorrow, and I'm best friends with one of the teachers there. I also know a couple of kids that go there that are your age! I could introduce you to them!"

"Really? Aw man, you're awesome!" Ty said as he reached out to shake Wheels' hand. "You really have no idea how much it completely sucks not knowing anyone!"

"I can only imagine!"

"OK, well then I guess I'll see ya tomorrow morning? Say, nine o'clock?" Ty said as he started to open the door to his apartment. Maddie dashed inside.

"Nine o'clock!" Wheels said as he watched him walk into the apartment and then retreated to his.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"So what'd you do in Winnipeg for fun?" Wheels asked Ty as the two of them walked down Degrassi Street towards the school the next day.

"Mostly I just hung out with my friends." Ty said as he kicked a rock down the sidewalk. "We played video games and spent a lot of time hanging out at a classic arcade playing the games there. We formed a band and we were actually pretty good! We used to play at Open Mic Night at a coffee house downtown, and every now and then someone would hear us and hire us to play at weddings and parties and stuff. It was cool, and the best part was all the girls!"

"I was in a band with my friends Snake and Joey when we were in school. We originally called ourselves 'The Zit Remedy' and later we changed it to 'The Zits'. We. . .were never _quite _as successful as your band was, though! We only knew one song, and that was 'Everybody Wants Something', a little number we wrote by ourselves. Joey tried more than anything to get us into the spotlight, but it never happened!" Wheels laughed as he shook his head, remembering Joey's futile attempts at fame for the trio. "Snake played guitar, Joey was on the keyboard, and I played bass. Although we never hit it big like Joey wishes we had, we still had a lot of fun playing together!"

"I play bass!" Ty said as they walked along. "Do you still play?"

"Not anymore. I'm sure I could if I wanted to, I just haven't played in a really long time, so I'm really rusty! I still have the bass at home that I used in high school, though. Maybe I could dig it out and we could jam sometime."

"That'd be cool!"

"Well, here we are!" Wheels said as they stopped outside the front of Degrassi Community School. The new school closely resembled Degrassi High, but it still wasn't the same.

Ty gulped. "I REALLY hate being the new kid!" He said.

"Oh, come on! It's not really that bad! Besides, you still haven't Emma and Craig yet, and I know you'll love those guys, and I'm pretty sure Emma will do everything she can to help you here! She has this uncanny knack for interfering with things she knows full well she should just leave alone, with good intentions, of course, and she'll be more than happy to help you adjust to life here!"

Ty gulped again, and the two of them proceeded up the stairs and into the building.

Once they were inside, the halls were crawling with students. Apparently a class had just been let out.

"Attention students!" Mr. Radditch's voice blared over the intercom. "This is just a reminder to all student council members that there will be a short meeting today after school in room 209. Please try to attend!"

"That guy was just on the intercom has been here forever!" Wheels said to Ty. "His name is Mr. Radditch and he's the principal here. When I was in junior high he was a teacher and in high school he became a vice principal."

Wheels led Ty to the office. Although Wheels hadn't gone to the new Degrassi, he still had a pretty good idea of the layout of the building. He'd been there several times to visit Snake since they'd reconciled and had been taken on a tour of the building at his high school reunion. He liked the new school. It was very modern.

Wheels remembered the discussion he'd had with Jayci the day before. He wondered why she had never even tried going back to school. He was sure if she really tried and worked hard that she could probably graduate with her class or maybe even shortly after them, depending on how far behind she was.

He followed Ty into the office. He decided to inquire about alternative programs for kids and adults wishing to complete high school diplomas.

"Can I help you with something?" The secretary asked Ty.

"Hi." Ty said to the secretary. "I'm new and here to enroll and register for classes."

"OK." She said. "There's a few forms you have to fill out first, and then you'll need to meet with Ms. Suave, the guidance counselor. She'll help you get signed up for classes. Do you have any records from your previous school?"

"Yeah, they're right here." Ty said as he pulled a few folded up papers out of his back pocket.

"You'll need those when you go in to see Ms. Suave." She said as she handed him a clipboard with papers attached to it. "I just need you to fill out the first page of each of these forms. Don't worry about the backs, those are for us to fill out. When you're done with those bring those back here and we'll get you in to see Ms. Suave." She handed him a pen.Ty took the clipboard and pen from her and took a seat in an empty chair and proceeded to fill out the forms. Wheels was next.

"And what can I do for you?" She asked.

"I just want to get some information on alternative programs for kids who've dropped out of school but want to get their diploma." Wheels said as he leaned over the countertop.

"Is this for yourself or someone else?"

"It's for someone else. I work with kids who are recovering alcoholics at St. Michael's Hospital and one of them has an interest in coming back to school."The secretary handed Wheels a thick manilla envelope filled with papers. "This has everything in it they'll need." She said. "Tell them if there's any questions to please call the school or school board for assistance."

"Thank you." Wheels said as he took the envelope from her.

--

"My next class is Grade 10 Media Immersion." Ty said as he looked at the schedule he'd just been given. He'd been walking around the school with Wheels finding all of his classes and even meeting a few of his teachers.

"That's the class Snake teaches!" Wheels said as they rounded a corner. "You'll really like him, and he's a good teacher."

They were coming up on a group of four guys, one of which was Craig Manning, Joey's stepson. The rest of them were Craig's friends Jimmy, Marco and Spinner. Wheels walked right up to them.

"And the best part was when he burped the national anthem!" Spinner said, laughing. He had been talking about a show on strange and unusual talents he'd seen on TV the night before. "And I don't mean one verse, I mean the WHOLE thing!" Spinner then attempted to do what he'd seen on TV.

Marco rolled his eyes. "Spin, that's disgusting!"

"What? It's funny!"

Jimmy shook his head.

"It's good to see that gross, disgusting humor still lives in the halls of this place!" Wheels said.

"Oh, hey!" Craig said. "What are you doing here?"

"I decided I didn't get enough of this place 12 years ago so I decided to come back." Wheels joked with Craig.

Spinner looked confused. "Are you serious?" He said.

Craig, Marco and Jimmy rolled their eyes.

"Spin, do yourself a favor and don't try to think anymore today, OK?" Craig said as took some books out of his locker.

"I'm actually here with this guy." Wheels said as he pointed to Ty. "Craig, this is Ty and he just signed up for classes here today. Ty, this is Craig. Ty just moved into the apartment right next door to mine."

"Hey." Ty said as he waved to Craig and the rest of the guys.

"Hi!" Craig replied. "These guys are Spinner, Marco and Jimmy." Craig said as he pointed out who was who to Ty. "Did you just move here?" Craig asked.

"From Winnipeg." Ty replied. "I'm in grade 10."

"Cool!" Craig said as he shut his locker. "I was new here last year, so I know what it feels like being the new guy." "It really sucks!"

"Yeah, no kidding!"

"It's OK here, though! You'll get used to it really fast and most of the people here are nice."

"Well I need to go finish finding the rest of my classes, but maybe I'll see ya around!" Ty said.

"OK, cool!" Craig replied. "See ya!" With that, Craig, Marco, Jimmy and Spinner took off in the opposite direction.

"The Media Immersion lab is this way." Wheels said as he pointed it out to Ty.

The Media Immersion lab was buzzing with conversation, as normal. This looked like the most interesting class to Ty. He loved working with computers and was actually quite good with them.

He apprehensively watched the other kids as they chatted and took their seats. He always got really nervous when he was around a large group of people he didn't know. That was mostly due to that fact that he wanted to make a good first impression on them.

Snake walked in the room.

"Snake!" Wheels said as Snake entered the room.

"Hey Wheels!"

"I'd like you to meet your newest student! This is Tyler Hoeklinson. Ty, this is my friend Snake, or as you'll probably call him, Mr. Simpson. Ty's family just moved into the apartment next door to mine, and I volunteered to help show him around here today."

"Hi." Snake said as he greeted Ty. "Welcome to Degrassi! Is this your first day here?"

"No." Ty answered. "My first official day will be tomorrow. I'm just figuring out where all my classes are today."

"Well, you're welcome to join us for this class today if you like!"

"OK!" Ty replied. "I will! That sounds like fun!"

"If you're gonna stay here, then I guess I'll go home." Wheels said. "I think you'll pretty much be able to find everything else by yourself."

"Why don't you stick around?" Snake asked. "After this class I have a free period and I always get lunch then. We could have lunch together!"

"OK! Well, I really don't want to hang around here, though, so I guess I'll just go wander aimlessly around the school, maybe stop at the Resource Centre and check out some old yearbooks and stuff."

"Alright." Snake said. Wheels left the room

The final bell rang.

"OK guys, have a seat!" Snake said to the class. "We have a lot to cover today, but first I have somebody I want you guys to meet! This is Ty Hoeklinson and he's new. Ty, wanna tell us anything about yourself?"

" Um, OK." Ty said. He was really nervous about speaking to a large group of people he didn't know. "I'm 15 and I just moved here from Winnipeg. I love working with computers and I play the bass. I live with my mom and dad and my little sister, Maddie."

"Great!" Snake said. "If you love working with computers then this class will be really fun for you! Guys, let's all do our best to make Ty feel welcome here, OK?"

With that, class began. They were studying a whole unit on the birth and history of the Internet that week, which was something that had always interested Ty. He'd studied about it at his old school in Winnipeg and even wrote a report on it for his English class, so he was able to contribute quite a lot to the discussion.

At the end of class, the bell rang and everyone got up to leave. Ty watched as all the other kids filed out of the classroom. He thought he was alone, but he wasn't. He could feel a pair of eyes watching him.

"Hi. Ty, right?" A girl's voice said from behind him. Ty turned around. It was Emma.

"Yeah." He replied. "What's up?"

"I just wanted to say hi. My name is Emma."

"Hi." Ty shyly replied. _"She's pretty!" _He thought to himself.

"Emma, are you coming?" Liberty asked as she poked her head back into the classroom.

Emma rolled her eyes. "Yes, Liberty! I'll be there in just a minute, OK?"

"Are you staying here for lunch?" Emma asked Ty.

"Yeah, I guess so." Ty said, shifting around in his seat.

"Would you like to sit with me and my friends?" Emma asked.

Ty thought about it for a minute. "Sure, why not?" He said, smiling. He got up from his chair and started walking out of the Media Immersion lab with Emma.

As they were leaving the room, Wheels was just coming back in.

"So you lived in Winnipeg?" Emma asked. "What's it like there?" She asked as she focused all of her attention on Ty. She thought he was kinda cute.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I liked it there." He said. "Its a big city, but not _quite _as big as Toronto. Me and my friends could always find tons of fun stuff to do there!"

"I think you'll like Toronto, too." Emma replied. "There's lots of stuff to do here. Like. . .Oof!" She said as she barreled off of Wheels. She wasn't watching where she was going, and she dropped all of her books.

"I see you've met Emma!" Wheels said as the three of them bent down to pick up her books.

"Wheels! What are you doing here?" Emma asked as she took her books out of his hands.

"Introducing Ty to my old stomping grounds. His family just moved into the apartment next to mine and I thought I'd come show him where he'll be going to school and introduce him to you and Craig so he could make some friends."

"My mom and stepdad, Snake, were in his class when they went to school here." Emma explained to Ty.

"I can remember when her mom was pregnant with her and she was just a baby!" Wheels said as he playfully punched Emma in the arm. "And now here she is, roaming the halls of Degrassi just like we did!"

"My mom had me when she was only 15."

"Wheels?" Snake asked as he approached the three of them from behind. "You ready?"

"Yeah."

"Wanna stay here and eat in the caf or go somewhere else?"

"We can stay here." Wheels answered.

"Ty, you coming?" Emma asked as she turned to leave.

"Um, yeah. You go on ahead without me, I need to talk to Wheels first, OK?"

"OK. I'll be in line waiting!" With that, Emma left for the cafeteria.

"You didn't tell me she was cute!" Ty whispered to Wheels.

"Who? Emma?" Wheels asked. Then a sly grin and a sparkle in his eyes crept over his face. "You're gettin' a crush on her, huh?"

"What? She's cute!"

Wheels kept grinning at him

"What?"

Wheels shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Nothin', man!" He said as he slapped Ty on the shoulder. "Just go find her!" He said with a laugh.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"YEESS!" Heather exclaimed as she jumped up and down and clapped her hands as she watched the bowling ball knock down all the pins. "STRIKE TWO! Make sure you write that down on the scorecard!" She told Wheels as she sat back down in her chair.

"I'm gonna beat you, you just wait and see!" Wheels said. "I'm just getting warmed up!"

It was his turn. He got up from his seat, walked over to the ball return and picked up his ball. He walked to the end of the lane, stepped to the side a bit, brought his arm back and hurled the ball down the lane with all the force he could muster. The ball got about halfway down the lane, then rolled over into the gutter.

"Gonna beat me, eh?" Heather boasted.

"I told you I'm just getting started!"

Wheels' date with Heather was going fairly well. He picked her up at her apartment at six o'clock like he'd promised her, and they went out for burgers and fries for dinner before hitting the bowling alley. Heather filled him in some more on her life and what Erica was up to. He, in turn, got her more up to speed as to what was going on with him. They had both done a lot of growing up since graduating from high school, and, like Ty was experiencing with Emma, he was starting to become attracted to her. Wheels had even started wondering what would have happened if they would've gone out together in high school. Maybe he would've been married with a family of his own by now instead of living the bachelor life in his lonely apartment on Gerrard Street.

"It's almost 11 and the bowling alley will be closing." He told her. "What do you want to do? I can take you home if you want, or we can do something else. The choice is all yours!"

Heather thought about it for a moment. "How about a walk?" She suggested.

"At 11 PM? Isn't it kinda dark out?"

"So? It'll be fun."

"OK, why not?" Wheels replied.

The two of them traded in their bowling shoes for their regular shoes.

"Ever wonder how many feet have been in a pair of bowling shoes?" Heather asked as she took hers off and put her real shoes back on.

Wheels cringed at the thought of that. "More feet than I care to know of!" He replied.

Heather laughed at him.

***

"Did you ever miss this place when you were locked up?" Heather asked Wheels as they walked along the streets of downtown Toronto.

"Not too much for a little while, then I really started to miss it." He replied as he scraped his his right shoe along the edge of a curb. "What I really missed was my freedom, but, then again, it _was _my fault that I was in prison. Then, after awhile I started getting homesick. Little things would trigger it, too, like seeing pictures of Toronto or hearing about it. I really wanted to come back home but I couldn't."

"I missed it when I was in Yellowknife. Yellowknife is beautiful, but this place is home and always will be! It feels so good to be back here!"

"I know what you mean! When I was told I was being released, I could hardly stand the excitement! I remember the day after I got out and I woke up that morning thinking 'Now what am I supposed to do?' I had this newfound freedom I didn't have before, and it was great!"

They walked in silence for a little ways, neither one of them saying a word, just enjoying each other's company.

"I thought about you a lot when you were in prison." Heather finally spoke up. "I kept wondering what you were up to, and a few times I even thought of trying to find you so I could send you some letters."

"I was mostly on Kitchen Duty and doing Community Service. I learned how to cook a mean bowl of Chili from Kitchen Duty!" Wheels responded with a bit of a laugh. "I kept wondering what everyone was up to! Joey was the only one that really stayed in contact with me, and I only saw him just a few times a year. You really should've looked me up, I would've loved any form of correspondence!" Wheels changed the subject. "Have you seen anyone else since you moved back?"

"I just got here last Friday and have spent most of my time unpacking boxes and moving into my apartment when I'm not at the station, so no, I haven't. I've been meaning to call Spike and maybe arrange some time when we can go out together. I would love to know how she's doing and how Emma, Jack and Snake are."

"Well, I'll try my best to fill you in on everything going on with them. Spike's still running the salon and making a killing at it, Snake's cancer went into remission and he's now cancer free, and Jack just turned a year old and is walking and causing all kinds of hell getting into anything he can reach, and Emma, well, she's growing up!"

"God, she's gotta be what, thirteen now?" Heather asked.

"Fourteen and in Grade 9."

"That is _so _hard to believe she's in high school now! It seems like it was just yesterday she was a baby and now she's practically an adult!"

"What can I say, time flies!"

They walked again in silence.

"This was fun tonight." Heather said as they continued walking.

"Yeah, it was."

"For the first time in a long time I forgot about Jonathan and the terrible, horrible, MEAN person that he was! I feel like I'm finally starting to get things back on track again!"

"Oh c'mon!" Wheels said as they came to a stop. "He couldn't have been _that _bad!"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Heather asked as she half-cocked her head.

"I mean, ya gotta give him _some _credit! He had excellent taste in women!"

"Really?" Heather said as a smile crept upon her face. She could feel her cheeks turning warm, and by now they were probably turning bright red. She did that a lot when she was embarrassed or really nervous.

Wheels moved closer to her and wrapped one arm around her waist and took her head in his other free hand. He then proceeded to kiss her, and she didn't oblige. Instead, she welcomed it. It was nice to feel attractive and loved and worthwhile for a change. She remembered the party she and Erica had had in high school just so she could closer to Wheels and how they'd actually ended up making out and how he'd been a complete jerk to her after that, but this time she could tell something was different. _He _wanted _her_, and that was nice.

After a few minutes he pulled away from her.

"You're pretty good!" She complimented him.

"Really? You think so?"

"Uhm hmm!" She said with her mouth closed as she nodded her head yes.

"'Cause it's been a long time since I've done that!"

"Well, I'd say you just found yourself someone to 'practice' on, if you catch my drift!"

Wheels and Heather walked back to his car that they left parked at the bowling alley. He drove her back home, and walked her to her apartment.

"I really had a lot of fun tonight." She said as she turned the knob on the door to her apartment after unlocking it. "We'll have to do it again."

Wheels remained silent for a moment. He wanted to leave her hanging with a little bit of suspense. After all, he didn't want to seem desperate or anything!

"Well?"

"I'd love to!"

"Great! Now," she said, standing half in the apartment and half in the hallway, "It's my turn to kiss YOU!"She took him in her arms like he'd taken her earlier and kissed him goodnight. That was when he knew this was the real thing, he was really in love with someone who loved him back, and it was the greatest feeling in the world!

"I'll call ya tomorrow, OK?" He said as they pulled away from each other and he ran his fingers through her long, curly brown hair.

"You're sure you'll call?" She asked him, remembering what happened the last time he said he'd call her and didn't.

"I promise! I swear on my grandmother's grave that I will call you tomorrow! Well, I don't know that swearing on her grave is really such a good idea! She might come back to haunt me if I did that, but I _promise_!"

Heather laughed at his remark about swearing on his grandmother's grave.

"If you don't, so help me God, I will hunt you down Derek Wheeler!"

"Don't worry! Good night, Heather!" He said as he started to walk away.

"Bye!" She said, shaking her head.

With Wheels gone, Heather went into her apartment packed full of boxes and furniture from moving. She stomped her feet and emitted a small scream of happiness. Something was finally going right for a change!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"So, did you have a girlfriend in Winnipeg?" Craig asked Ty as they walked down Pape Street the Sunday following Wheels' date with Heather. It was a balmy Saturday afternoon for Toronto in the middle of September.

"I did for awhile, but then we broke up when her family moved back to Minnesota, which is where she's originally from. She was really beautiful! What about you?"

"I dated Ash, slept with Manny, and now I have neither one of them! Need I say more?"

"And I thought _I _had it bad!" Ty said, laughing. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

"Sure!"

"Whaddya think of Emma?"

"Emma? Emma Nelson?" Craig asked as they continued walking. "She's OK, I guess. Why?"

"Just wondering."

"She's nice, and pretty. If you like her, you should ask her out!"

"I don't know. I might, but I'd really like to know her better first before I do anything like that."

He'd now been living in Toronto for two weeks and the place was actually starting to grow on him. Aside from Wheels, he'd made friends with people his own age, too, namely Craig and his friends and Emma and some of her friends. His parents had also made friends with Wheels, when he'd volunteered to help them move their furniture in once it finally arrived from Winnipeg. All in all, Toronto was starting to feel like home.

Ty and Craig turned on to Gerrard Street. They were going back to Ty's apartment to get his bass. Ty was originally supposed to stay home and watch Maddie that night, but when he was invited to practice with Craig and gang, that all changed. He struck up a deal with his mom, who was just so happy that he was making friends that she had to let him be with them. The deal was that if she and his dad would let him go, he'd help them find a suitable babysitter for Maddie, which he did. He asked Emma, who gladly agreed to come over and watch her for the night.

"And this is where I live!" Ty said as he threw open the door to their apartment. There were boxes scattered all around the living room, as they were still in the middle of unpacking. Maddie was sitting on the couch, eating some grapes and watching cartoons.

"It doesn't look like much, but it's better than nothing right now. We might eventually move into a house, but this was the only thing we could find for the time being. My dad's company didn't give him much notice that he was being transferred and that the transfer was almost immediately."

"Ty!" Maddie yelled as she jumped off of the couch and ran over to his legs and hugged them. Ty scooped her up in his arms. "And this is MY little sister, Maddie!" He said to Craig. He'd just met Craig's little sister, Angela, earlier that morning. "Maddie, this is my friend, Craig!"

"Hi Craig!" Maddie said as she ran back to the couch.

"Hey, where's Mom?"

"She's puttin' stuff away in my room." Maddie said, concentrating on her cartoon.

"This way." Ty said as he lead Craig back to Maddie's room.

"Mom?" Ty said as they entered Maddie's room.

"What?" She said. She had her head in a big, tall box labeled "Maddie's toys". She stood back up, her arms full of toys. Maddie sure had a lot of them, Ty thought. She turned to face the two of them.

"This is my friend Craig. Craig, this is my mom."

"Hi, Craig!" LeeAnn, Ty's mom, said as she laid Maddie's toys down on her bed. She had the same blond hair as Ty, only here's was longer and pulled back in a messy ponytail. She extended her hand out to Craig, and they shook hands. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Hi, it's nice to meet you!" Craig said as he shook LeeAnn's hand.

"Ty, what time did Emma say she'd be here?" LeeAnn asked.

"Six, I think. Why?"

"I was just trying to figure out what time I should feed Maddie, that's all."

"Well, we're going to get my bass and then go back to Craig's house."

"OK." LeeAnn said as she picked the toys up off of Maddie's bed. "You boys have fun!""Bye Mom!" Ty said as they left. Craig waved at her.

"It's in here." Ty said as he opened the door to the room next to Maddie's, which was his.

Ty had his room all decked out in posters, mostly of classic rock and retro 80s bands. His favorite poster was actually the vintage Gourmet Scum poster he'd bought at a yard sale from a guy in Winnipeg, because it had been autographed. He loved their music! He was extremely jealous when Wheels told him he'd actually gotten to see them perform a few times as a teenager. There was absolutely no doubt in Ty's mind that if he'd been growing up in Toronto and attending Degrassi when Wheels and his friends went to school there that they would have been best friends because they had such similar interests. Still, it was cool being friends with Wheels now because even though he was an adult, he didn't treat Ty like he was a kid. He could talk and hang out with Wheels just like he did Craig, Marco, Spinner and Jimmy and it wasn't awkward. Still, Wheels did his best to keep him on the straight and narrow. Wheels told him all about how he refused to take responsibility for the things that happened to him that were his own fault when he was just about Ty's age, and he told him the story of how he landed himself in prison for ten years and he made sure that Ty knew if he was ever in any sort of trouble he'd do the best he could to help him, but if it was ever anything really serious he was telling Ty's parents about it. It was plain and simple: Wheels cared enough that he didn't want Ty (Or for that matter, Emma or Craig), to go through the same messes he did. Just being a teenager was hard enough!

Craig admired all of Ty's posters. There really wasn't a bare spot on the wall; the walls were covered! Then he noticed a set of drumsticks in a wooden box sitting on the dresser. He picked them up and started looking at them.

"Hey, be careful with those!" Ty said as he watched Craig out of the corner of his eye.

"Oh my God!" Craig gasped. "You have a set of drumsticks autographed by Rick Allen of Def Leppard? How did you get those? They're one of the greatest bands of all time!"

Ty smiled. "A couple of years ago my friend Chris and I got to go to one of their concerts in Alberta and we got to meet them. Chris's dad works at the arena that they played in and got us free tickets and we actually got to meet them and hang out with them for a little while after the show. It was really cool!"

"I would've KILLED to have been there with you!" Craig exclaimed, still ogling the drumsticks.

"You ready?" Ty said as he pulled out the case containing the bass.

"Yeah, sure!" Craig said as he put the drumsticks back down in the box. "Man, RICK ALLEN!"

***

"Print, and. . .DONE!" Wheels said as he sat back in his chair. He watched the printer sitting next to his MacBook print out several pieces of paper, which were actually the progress reports for the kids in his group that he was required to give to their counselors. He was required to turn in progress reports every couple of weeks showing their attendance, the results of the sobriety tests that were administered every few days by the police (Some of them needed to have the test done every day, and were given assigned times to come to the police station for them. If they failed, they were sent to jail until bond could be posted for them, then they had to start the recovery process all over again. They were given three chances to complete the recovery process, and if they failed a fourth time, they were sentenced to jail for a whole year. Wheels had seen this happen a couple of times.), and any other issues that he felt needed to be addressed and dealt with. So far, the kids were all doing fairly well, but they still had quite a way to go.

He locked his hands together behind his back and leaned back and stretched, letting out a loud yawn. He then reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out his cellphone and decided to call Heather.

They'd gone out together a few more times since their first date, and things were going well. She was the most amazing woman he'd ever met.

He dialed her number and her phone rang six or seven times. She didn't answer.

_"She's probably working and put it on vibrate so nobody can hear it."_ He thought. "_No problem, I'll just try again later!"_

He reached for the remote for the stereo, which was sitting next to him on the table. Wheels' apartment was big with three bedrooms and one bathroom, but the living room and kitchen were combined. The kitchen was on the back half of the apartment, and to the right of that was a small hallway that led to the three bedrooms and the bathroom. To the left of the kitchen was the sliding glass door that led to the back patio and fire escape where Sheba spent all of her time when she was outside. The kitchen and living room was separated by an oblong bar countertop. The kitchen and bathroom both had the same white tile on the floor, while the rest of the apartment was carpeted in beige carpet.

Sheba jumped up on the desktop next to the MacBook and started meowing. She then lied down and rolled over on her back, exposing her stomach for a belly rub. Wheels rubbed her stomach and she purred loudly.

Wheels had had Sheba for about two years, getting her shortly after he moved in during the winter. She was actually a stray kitten then, and he'd found her one day when he was taking a bag of garbage out to the dumpster behind the apartment building. Actually, what he had found was Sheba's whole family; Mom and about nine brothers and sisters. All of them seemed to be very tame, and the kittens were extremely playful like kittens are. He petted them, but decided to let them be. Sheba wasn't about to let him go so easily, though, and as he was walking back into the building he was stopped by a faint, small meow. He turned around to see a small, skinny black and white kitten sitting there with these two huge, sad looking amber colored eyes. She had a look on her face that pretty much said "Please help me! I'm hungry and cold and I have no one and nowhere to go!" He felt guilty. He knew all too well what it felt like being alone, and he couldn't just leave here there. He carried her back inside to his apartment and put her in an empty box with an old bath towel for some added warmth, gave her a small dish of water and fed her a can of tuna that he'd had in the kitchen. He grabbed another empty box that was just big enough for Mom and the rest of the kittens and went outside and gathered them up in the box. He drove them over to the animal shelter down town, where they were checked by a veterinarian and put up for adoption. Since then, Sheba had gone from being a small, skinny kitten to a big, fat cat who still loved to play and spent every night sleeping at the foot of his bed.

Wheels turned on the radio and turned the station to CRAZ. An ad for Jeremiah Motors was playing.

"I have cars, trucks, vans, SUVs! You want it? I got it! Bad credit? No credit? No problem! Just come see me, Joey Jeremiah, down at Jeremiah Motors and I will get YOU in the car, truck, van or SUV of YOUR choice today!"

Wheels laughed at Joey's ad. He always laughed at Joey's ads because they were essentially your stereotypical ad for a used car dealership. Joey was very good at what he did, though. He was very "people smart" and very convincing, something Joey always had been. Wheels often thought he would've made a very good spokesman for TV ads, because if anyone could convince others that something was great even though it was shit, it'd be Joey Jeremiah.

The CRAZ jingle came on, then the weather, and then, to his surprise, so did Heather!

"OK, so remember how I was asking you guys to e-mail me with your strange but true facts earlier? Well, I received some good ones from Keri out in Ottawa and Brian in Toronto over the break, and these are actually pretty funny! Keri shared these two tidbits of information with me: The dot over the letter "i", like a lowercase "i", is actually called a tittle! A TITTLE!" She said, laughing. "What a funny name for that little tiny dot! She also tells me that men can read smaller print than women, but women can hear better than men! I have another theory, though, and that's that men just purposely like to ignore women! Brian shared this fun little fact with me: The Guinness Book of World Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from public libraries! How's that for irony? A book about records having a record itself for being the most stolen book!" She laughed again. "Keeps those e-mails comin', I really like hearing from you guys and you don't just have to e-mail me strange facts, you can e-mail me about anything, even you want if you just wanna talk, or maybe even just ask a question about something! Also, don't forget that if there's something you wanna hear to send me a request on or call me on the Crazy Line at 439-2729 and I'll play that song for ya! Right now here's 'Heaven' by Bryan Adams for Sheryl in Toronto on CRAZ FM!"

Wheels reached for his phone again and dialed the number for the Crazy Line, hoping to get through. He had never heard Heather on the radio, but she was really good, and he wanted to make sure she knew that.

The phone on the other end started ringing, then Heather answered.

"Thanks for calling the Crazy Line! What would you like to hear?" She asked."How 'bout 'Are you busy tonight'?" Wheels asked as he leaned back in his chair, smiling at nothing in particular.

"Huh?" Heather said, confused as to what was going on. Then she started to catch on. "Wheels, is that you?"

"Well I'd be a little alarmed if you had other guys calling you and asking if you were busy on a Saturday night! So, are you?"

"My big Saturday night plans were to stay at home and watch TV, but if you can offer something else more worthwhile I might be persuaded!"

"How about coming over to my place and spending a night in with me? We can order a pizza or chinese or something and order a movie off of pay-per-view."

"Maybe." Heather thought for a moment, then made a decision. "OK! Sounds good!" She said. Wheels could tell she was smiling because she just sounded like she was happy.

"I also called to tell you that I've been listening to you on the air and I think you're really good!"

"Thanks! That really means a lot to hear someone say that!"

"Although with that remark you made about guys purposely ignoring women, I don't know. . ." He teased.

"Yeah, yeah! Whatever!" Heather said, teasing him back. "We both know you guys never pay attention to us when we're talking to you! Anyway, I'm just filling in for the girl that does the afternoon show on Saturdays because her son is sick and she had to stay home and take care of him." She looked up at the screen on her computer that told her how long the song she was playing had left. It only had just a little over a minute left. "Hey, I gotta get going soon! So what time should I come over?" She asked. "I'll be out of here at four."

Wheels thought for a moment. He needed a little time a quick shower and shave and a little time to tidy up before she got there. "Six OK?"

"That'd be great!" She said. "I'll see you then!"

"OK, six it is! Bye!" He said as he hung up.

***

"Mom, I'm leaving!" Emma said as she headed toward the front door. She was carrying a bag full of her old toys and games that she used to love to play with when she was little. She was hoping she and Maddie could play with them and they'd keep Maddie busy and out of trouble for the night.

"OK!" Spike yelled from the other room. "Call me if you need anything!"

Emma walked out of the house and down the sidewalk and turned onto the sidewalk of Degrassi Street. She turned onto Gerrard Street and walked to Gerrard Street Commons, the apartment complex that Ty and Wheels lived in. She entered the building the two of them lived in and walked to the elevator on the main floor and pushed the "Up" arrow button. As she was waiting for the elevator to come down, a woman came up from behind her carrying two large bags packed full of groceries.

"Are you going up?" Emma asked the lady.

"Yes." The lady said as the elevator doors opened and they walked in.

"What floor?" Emma asked as the doors closed behind them.

"Three." The woman said as she sat one bag of groceries down on the floor.

Emma pushed the buttons for their respective floors. The elevator stopped at the third floor and the lady started walking out of the elevator, thanking Emma.

"Thank you!" She called to Emma shortly before the elevator doors started to close.

"You're welcome!" Emma called out to her.

"WAIT!!" Someone else called out as she ran toward the closing elevator doors. Another woman came running towards the elevator and Emma wedged herself between the closing doors so the woman could get on.

"Thank you soo much!" The woman said as she boarded the elevator.

"It's no problem." Emma said as she stepped back inside.

"Wait a minute. . ." The woman said as she studied Emma. "Emma? Emma Nelson? Is that you?"

"Yeeaah. . ." Emma said, getting a little creeped out. "How do you know who I am?"

"OH MY GOD!" The strange woman turned out to be none other than Heather. "You really ARE all grown up!"

"And YOU are really scaring me!"

Heather laughed. "You don't remember me, do you? I'm Heather Farrell, I was one of your mom's best friends when we went to Degrassi."

Emma thought for a moment, then she remembered briefly meeting her before her mom's high school reunion and then meeting her again when her mom and Snake got married.

"OK, I think I remember you now!" She said. "Don't you have a twin sister named Erica?"

"Uh huh!"

"I thought you lived in Yellowknife?"

"Not anymore. I got a job here in Toronto as the Program Manager for CRAZ FM, so I moved back. I've only been back for just a couple of weeks! So how are you?"

"Pretty good. I've got a babysitting job here tonight."

"Well I'm here for a date!" Heather beamed.

"Really? Who with?" Emma was becoming interested now.

"Wheels!"

"Wheels?" Emma asked in amazement. "Ya mean he finally managed to find himself a date?"

"I've been seeing him for a couple of weeks, and I really like him." Heather said, her face glowing. "It's been a really long time since I've been this happy!"

The elevator stopped and the two of them got off and walked down the hall together. Heather stopped at Wheels' apartment and Emma stopped at Ty's apartment.

"Good luck!" Emma said before knocking on the door.

"Thanks!" Heather said.

Emma started to knock on the door and then spoke up again.

"You should call my mom sometime!" She said. "I know she'd love to hear from you! Just ask Wheels for the number, he has it!"

"Thanks. I will!" Heather said as she knocked on the door to Wheels' apartment.

Emma knocked on the door and was greeted by Mike, Ty and Maddie's dad.

"You must be Emma!" He said as he opened the door. "Honey, Emma's here!" He called out to LeeAnn. "Come on in! My name is Michael, but you can call me Mike." Mike extended his hand out to Emma and the two of them shook hands.

Emma followed him into the messy apartment full of boxes. LeeAnn walked out into the living room from one of the bedrooms.

"Hi Emma." LeeAnn said as she entered the room. "I've heard a lot about you! I'm LeeAnn." LeeAnn also shook hands with Emma. "Maddie, can you come out here please?" LeeAnn called out to Maddie, who had been playing in her bedroom. Maddie came out of her room.

"Yes, Mommy?" She said to LeeAnn.

"Honey, this is Emma." LeeAnn said to Maddie as she introduced the two of them to each other. "She's gonna watch you tonight while Daddy and I are gone, OK?"

"Hi." Maddie said to Emma.

"Hi Maddie!" Emma said as she knelt down on the floor to be at the same height as Maddie.

"What's in the bag?" Maddie asked as she pointed to the duffle bag Emma had been carrying.

"Stuff for us to do, like games. Do you like playing games?"

"Games are FUN!" Maddie said, yelling the word "fun". Ty had warned her beforehand that Maddie had a lot of energy, and Emma could tell that he was right.

"Well you and me are gonna have a lot of fun tonight, then!" Emma said.

"I wrote our cell numbers down and they're hanging up on the fridge." LeeAnn said to Emma. "And if you get hungry you can help yourself to anything in the fridge. Make sure she's in bed by eight thirty, and she's allowed a small, healthy snack before bed. Maddie's usually a pretty good girl when it comes to picking out her snacks, too."

"OK." Emma replied, making a mental note of Maddie's bedtime snack and what time she went to bed.

"Am I forgetting anything?" LeeAnn asked Mike.

"I don't think so." Mike replied.

"OK." LeeAnn said. "Be a good girl, OK Maddie?" LeeAnn and Mike both took turns hugging and kissing Maddie and telling her they loved her.

"You girls have fun!" Mike said as they left.

"Bye!" Emma called out behind him. After seeing Mike and LeeAnn, it was apparent that Ty got his looks from LeeAnn and Maddie got hers from Mike. Ty had the same blonde hair and green eyes as LeeAnn, and Maddie had Mike's brown hair and eyes.

***

". . .And they lived happily ever after." Emma said quietly as she closed the book Maddie had picked out for her to read to her before she went to sleep. Maddie had asked her if Emma could read to her in the living room instead of her bedroom, and Emma happily obliged. Emma took a seat on the couch and Maddie crawled up on her lap and listened as Emma read the story. Sometime near the end, Maddie curled up and drifted off to sleep, lying her head on Emma's chest. Emma carefully picked her up so as not to disturb her and carried her to her room and put her in her bed. Emma pulled the covers up over her and slowly tiptoed out of the room. Emma and Maddie had had quite a bit of fun that night. Maddie loved playing with Emma's old toys and games, and Emma liked her. If LeeAnn and Mike ever asked her to come back and babysit again, she'd be more than happy to do it.

She went back to the living room and found the remote to the TV and turned it on. It was only nine o'clock, so something good had to be on. Emma pulled up the on-screen guide and scrolled through it. She finally decided to watch some old Bugs Bunny cartoons that were on one of the channels.

***

It was now eleven PM. Emma had fallen asleep on the couch but was woken up by the sound of keys rattling in the door. Mike and LeeAnn were home.

"Hey!" LeeAnn whispered as they walked into the apartment. "How'd it go?"

"Mmm. . ." A groggy Emma said as she wiped her eyes. "She was good. We played and I gave her her snack and then I read her a story and she fell asleep. She's in bed now. We had fun."

"Maddie's a pretty good girl." Mike said. "Sounds like she likes you."

"If you're free next weekend, we'd love to have you come back and babysit again!" LeeAnn said. "We want to go out again!""I'll have to check my schedule, but I think I'm free!" Emma replied.

"I'll call you and let you know sometime next week." LeeAnn said as she reached into her purse to get out a $20 bill for Emma. Emma took the bill from her.

"C'mon, Emma. I'll drive you home." Mike said as got his keys out of his pocket.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Wait a minute, I don't understand!" Ty said as he tried to comprehend the algebra problem Emma was trying to help him understand. "If y isn't important, then why is it there?"

"It's just logic." Emma explained. "You can have x without having y, and the answer is still 14."

"But how can you have x without having y and still have 14? That doesn't make any sense! Y has to be important!"

Emma rolled her eyes. "OK, I really don't know how else to explain this to you. Maybe you should just ask Mr. Armstrong for help. He's a math teacher!"

"Here, let me try explaining it to you." Toby volunteered. Toby, Emma, Liberty and Ty had decided to meet in the school library after school to do some extra studying the Monday following Emma's babysitting job. By now Ty was becoming friends with lots of kids, and he hung out with Craig, Spinner, Jimmy, Marco, Emma, Liberty, JT and Toby a lot. He'd met Emma's best friend Manny, who Emma was fighting with, and he liked her, too, but not for the same reasons the vast majority of the other guys liked her for. She just really wasn't his type. He liked Emma, and that was that. He'd also met Sean, Emma's ex-boyfriend, and while Sean seemed like a nice enough guy, he just didn't know Sean all that well. Sean was more of a loner, not really talking to anyone too much.

"I'm gonna go to the washroom." Emma said as she got up from the table, leaving Toby to try and explain Algebra to Ty.

Emma walked out of the library and down the hall to the girls' washroom. As she was rounding the corner, she nearly ran right into Manny, who was heading towards the gym for Spirit Squad practice.

"Hi." Manny said, sounding nervous.

"Uhm, hi." Emma said, looking down at the floor. "Excuse me, I have to go to the washroom now." She said as walked past Manny.

"Em?" Manny said as Emma kept walking. "When are you ever going to start talking to me? Are you ever going to forgive me?"

Emma stopped and turned around to face Manny. Still bitter over the argument they had had when Manny decided she wanted to change her style so she'd be sexier, Emma retorted "Gee, Manny, you better not be caught talking to me! It could ruin your image!" Emma continued walking, leaving Manny standing there in the hall.

"Now I understand!" Ty said as Emma pulled her chair out to sit down again after coming back from the washroom.

"It's all very simple, really. You just have to think logically."

"Hey Em, after this you wanna go grab a burger or somethin'? I know you're a vegetarian, so we don't have to eat burgers if you don't want to. We can just order some fries and shakes or somethin', if you want." Ty suggested.

"Yeah, sure! I'll have to call my mom first, but I'm sure she'll say yes!"

"Great!"

***

"OK, and this one!" Wheels said as he held up the last flash card. He was at Joey's dealership, just hanging out. He'd decided to come and see Joey after finishing up with his group session and after finishing up some work at the hospital. Joey's five year old daughter, Angela, was also there, as she only had a half day of school that day and Joey didn't have anyone to watch her when she got out of school. So, Joey closed the dealership early for lunch and went and picked Angela up from school and took her back to the dealership with him. She'd spent most of the afternoon playing, coloring and being quizzed on her subtraction skills with the flash cards. In the middle of quizzing her, Joey had a couple of customers to tend to, so Wheels volunteered to quiz her. She was pretty good, and only ended up missing a few on the first try, so Wheels kept going over those ones with her until she got them all right. He could tell she was getting tired of the flash cards because he'd been working with her on them for almost an hour, and kids get pretty impatient when it comes to stuff like that! Still, this was important, and he wanted her to do a good job.

"Seven!" Angie yelled as she jumped up from her chair.

"You got it, Babe!" Wheels said he grabbed her around the middle and started tickling her. Angie shrieked with laughter. "Stop it!" She screamed while laughing. He let go of her, and she sat back down next to him.

"Gimme five!" He said as he held out the palm of his hand to her. "Good job!" He said as he gave her a thumbs up.

"You'll be a good daddy someday!" She told him.

"Why thank you!" Wheels replied.

"Wanna color with me?" Angie said as she reached for her box of crayons.

"Sure!"

"Here!" She said as she handed him a piece of paper and some crayons.

The two of them sat in Joey's office coloring until Joey finished up the last sale.

"Thanks a lot!" Joey yelled to his last customer as he leaned out of the office door. "You come back on Wednesday and she'll be ready for ya, OK? Thanks again!" He came back in.

"Sell any cars?" Wheels asked him as he looked up from his paper.

"Two of 'em!" Joey said, clapping his hands together. "You ready to call it a day and head home, Ang?"

Angie looked up and nodded yes.

"You need to pick your stuff up, then! Did you finish your flash cards?" Joey asked her as he shut down his computer.

"Not only did she finish them, but she got them all right!" Wheels replied, giving Angie a high-five. "This girl is on fire! She is hot!" He helped Angie put her crayons back in the box.

"That's the kind of stuff I like to hear!" Joey said as he put away some papers. "Looks like we're ready to go!"

Angie gathered up all of her stuff, and Wheels stood up. The three of them exited the office, and Wheels and Angie waited for Joey to lock up.

"I guess I'll see you guys later." Wheels said before they headed off to their respective vehicles. Angie came over to hug him before they left. He knelt down to be at her level.

"Bye Hon!" He said as he hugged her. "Be good and take it easy, OK?"

"Bye Wheels!" She said as they stood up. She waved at him, and he waved back.

"See ya Joey!" Wheels said as he started walking off to his car.

As Wheels was driving home, he started feeling pangs of jealousy towards Joey. Joey had almost everything he wanted. At one point in his life Joey had been married to Julia, Craig's mom, and she was an absolutely wonderful woman. Wheels had got to meet her a couple of times when Joey had come to see him when he was still in prison, and he liked her. Joey also had Angela, who he loved more than anything in the world, even more so now that Julia was gone. Everything Joey did, he did for Angie. Then there was Craig, and even though Craig wasn't Joey's biological son, he was the son Joey never had, and Joey was more of a dad to Craig than Craig's real dad was. Joey took Craig in and helped him when he discovered that Craig's dad abused him, and the two had really bonded since then.

Wheels wanted that kind of life. He had no close family of his own, just very distant relatives. Every time he saw Joey, Angie and Craig or even Snake, Spike, Emma and Jack together he got a little depressed; how nice it would be to have a family to belong to! He wanted a wife and at least one child he could call his own, someone who would look up to him and think he was the greatest person in the world, even though he knew he was far from it. But, in all reality, up until recently he'd always been pretty unlucky with romantic relationships, and in all honesty he really wanted to have a good, solid relationship with a woman before he even attempted to help bring a child into the world. He also wanted to make sure the child's mother wanted the child, too, as it wouldn't be fair to the child if he was the only one that wanted it. He knew first hand what it felt like to be unwanted, and it sucked! When he was a teenager, he'd run away from home to be with Mike, his birth father after his adoptive parents died. Mike basically told him he didn't want him, which hurt. A lot. He knew it wouldn't be fair for his own child to have to deal with having a mother that didn't want him or her.

Wheels pulled into the parking lot of his apartment complex and parked his car. After he went in and checked the mail, he proceeded to his apartment. He decided to just spend the evening at home watching TV. Heather was working, and everyone else was busy except for him. Besides, he'd seen a promo for a movie the other day that was going to be on TV that night and it looked like it might be good.

"Here, Kitty!" Wheels called out to Sheba as he held the patio door open. Sheba came strolling up the fire escape and into the apartment. He poured some food into her bowl and gave her a bowl of fresh water.

Wheels was hungry, so he started looking for something to eat. He opened up the refrigerator to see what was in there, but it was pretty bare. He made a mental note of the fact that he really should buy some groceries sometime during the week. He raided the cabinets but didn't find anything that sounded good, so he found himself back at the fridge again, except this time he was rummaging through the freezer.

"Ah, cool!" He said as he pulled out a box of Spicy Chicken and Cheese Taquitos. He pulled the baking tray out of the toaster oven on the counter and turned the toaster oven on to preheat. While that was preheating, he placed a few of the frozen Taquitos on the baking tray. He put the Taquitos in to bake for about thirteen minutes and grabbed a cold can of Coke out of the fridge.

Wheels grabbed the remote for the TV and flopped down on the couch. He turned the TV on and pulled up the onscreen guide to find something suitable to watch. The only problem was he couldn't find anything that looked good! He exited the guide and just started flipping through the channels, hoping to find something good. He started wondering how you can have 200 channels and yet most of the time there was nothing on. It made him mad to think that he was paying so much money a month for digital cable and he hardly ever found anything worth watching on TV.

***

". . . .If you're not completely satisfied, you may cancel at any time and keep the free MP3 player! It's our gift to you!" The voice on the TV said.

A sleeping, snoring Wheels snorted and then woke up. A bit disoriented, he looked around the room, his gaze finally meeting the TV, which was now playing a late night infomercial. He looked up at the clock on the wall. It was twelve thirty. He had fallen asleep while watching the movie.

He got up and turned everything off, then headed to the bathroom, where he used the toilet and washed up before heading off to bed. He took his glasses off and put them on the night stand next to the bed. He turned down the blankets and collapsed on the bed, drifting off to sleep again almost as soon as he hit the mattress.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Why?"

"Because you have school Monday, that's why!" LeeAnn said as she loaded the dishes in the dishwasher.

"So? I'll just go to school with Spinner on Monday!" Ty argued. He'd been arguing with his parents about spending the night with Spinner the next night. They didn't want him to because it was a school night, but he didn't see what the big deal was. It wasn't like he _wasn't _going to go to school on Monday. Besides, Spinner had to go to school, too!

"Ty!" Mike warned as he helped his wife with the dishes. "No!"

"You guys are being so unfair!" Ty yelled as he stormed off. He walked out of the apartment. He needed to take a walk.

Ty slammed the door as he left. As he was walking down the hall, he ran into Wheels, who was carrying a basket of freshly washed, dried and folded laundry back to his apartment.

"Hey!" Wheels said as they approached each other. Ty rolled his eyes and kept walking past him.

"Uh. . .OK. Did I do something?"

Ty turned around. "Sorry." He said. "It's just my dumb parents! They treat me like I'm a kid, and it's so unfair!"

"C'mon." Wheels said as he nodded toward his apartment. The two of them walked together.

"All I want to do is spend the night at Spinner's house tomorrow, and they're telling me I can't because I have school on Monday! I don't see what the big deal is! Spinner has to go to school on Monday, too! It's not like I wouldn't go to school!"

Wheels sat the basket down on the floor and unlocked the door. He vividly remembered the days of when he thought his parents were unfair and how he used to fight with them.

"Well," he said, "I see their point. It _is _a Sunday night, a time when you should be studying and doing homework. . ."

"I don't believe this!" Ty said, throwing his arms up in the air. "You're siding with them!"

"What? No! I see their point, and I see your point, too! But, in all honesty do you think that if you spent the night at his house that any homework or studying would get done?"

"Who cares if it does! Ya know, sometimes I wish I just didn't have to deal with them!" Ty started to walk out of the apartment.

Wheels sat the basket of clothes down on the couch. He remembered thinking like that before his parents died, and to hear Ty say that made him shudder.

"Ty," He started. "You don't mean that!"

"Yes I do!"

"No you don't! They're not trying to be the bad guys! They do all the stuff they do because they love you, not because they're unfair people!"

Ty stopped and looked at him.

"Just be careful what you wish for, OK? Trust me!"

With that, walked out.

***

"Man, that's so uncool!" Spinner said as he handed Ty a plate of french fries and a strawberry milkshake. Ty ended up going to The Dot, where Spinner was working that day.

"Well I don't care!" Ty said as he ate a french fry. "I'm sneaking out tomorrow and coming over! They've gotta stop treating me like I'm a little kid! It's fine if they want to do that kind of stuff with Maddie, but she's a KID!"

"You gotta stand up to them and not let them push you around! If ya don't they're just gonna walk all over you for the rest of your life!"

Ty took a drink of his shake.

"They're not telling me what to do anymore!" He said. "I'm done!"

***

"So, I hear you've found yourself a girlfriend!" Emma said as she sat down in the easy chair in Wheels' living room. She'd been asked by Snake to return some stuff he'd borrowed from him before she went for her babysitting job.

"What else have you heard?" Wheels asked her from the bathroom, where he was getting ready for yet another date with Heather.

"Nothing!" She said. "Are you in love with her?"

"Yeah," Wheels replied. "I think I am! I really like her, Em, and it's been a long time since I've felt this way about anyone. It's a great feeling!"

He stepped out of the bathroom.

"How do I look?"

Emma studied him. He'd chosen a dark blue t-shirt and a pair of stone-washed blue jeans to wear for his date. He'd taken a shower, shaved, and even brushed his teeth. Everything was in a place.

"Look out, Heather!" She said, giving him a thumbs up.

"Thanks!" He said. There was a knock at the door. "That's her!" He said as headed to the door to answer it.

"Hi!" Heather said after he opened the door. She leaned in for a quick kiss.

"Come on in!" Wheels said as he motioned for Heather to come in. "I just have to go get my shoes, but Emma's here!"

Heather walked in.

"Hi, Emma!" She said when she saw Emma sitting in the chair. "What are you doing here?"

"I had to drop off some stuff Snake borrowed and I have a babysitting job next door again."

"I met that little girl you've been babysitting for the other day!" Heather said. "She's sooo adorable!"

"Yeah, she's cute! I love babysitting for her! We have a lot of fun! The pay's not bad, either!"

Heather laughed.

"You ready?" Wheels asked Heather as he walked out into the living room.

"Sure!"

Emma picked up her bag of games and toys. It was such a big hit with Maddie the week before that she had to do it again.

"I gotta get going, too." She said. "You guys have fun tonight!" She said as she walked past them to leave.

"See ya, Em!" Wheels said as he took Heather's hand in his.

"I think having fun sounds like an excellent plan!" Heather said, smiling at Wheels. The two of them walked out together.

***

"Oops! Sorry!" Emma whispered to Maddie as she carried Maddie to her room to put her to sleep. In an attempt to get a better grip on her, Emma almost dropped her.

"Uhmm. . . " A sleepy Maddie moaned as she put her head on Emma's shoulder. Emma carried her into her room, lied her on her bed and pulled the covers up over her.

Emma headed back out to the living room to watch some TV. She heard sirens wailing outside. She knew there must've been a terrible accident somewhere, and there was no doubt that someone was hurt.

She'd been watching a special on polar bears for about fifteen minutes when the show cut to a commercial break. Getting hungry, she used that time to go to the kitchen and look for a snack. She settled on an apple and a glass of water.

As she headed back into the living room to finish watching her show, there was a knock at the door. Emma looked through the peephole in the door to see who it was. Outside the door stood two police officers. She opened the door to them.

"Is this the Hoeklinson residence?" One of the officers asked.

"Uh huh." Emma said, her voice panic stricken. She was getting worried. _"What are the police doing here?" _She thought. "My name is Emma Nelson. I'm babysitting here tonight. Can I help you?"

The other officer had a very grim look on her face. "I'm afraid we have some very bad news, Miss Nelson." She said.

Now Emma was really scared. What was going on?


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Oh my God!" Emma said, crying. Her hands were shaking as she tried to dial the numbers on her phone. She was crying and crying hard. "Somebody PLEASE help!" She pleaded quietly inbetween tears. She'd already tried calling home, but her mom, Snake and Jack had gone out for the evening, and when she tried calling their cellphones all she got was voicemail. She tried calling Joey, but he wasn't answering, either.

"One last try!" She said as she dialed Wheels' number. "Please answer, PLEASE!"

***

"Yeah, well you weren't so hot yourself!" Heather said inbetween bites. She and Wheels had just gone miniature golfing and he was making fun of the way she golfed.

"Yeah, but at least I managed to get the ball through the windmill!" Wheels said, laughing. He heard his phone start ringing, so he took it out of his pocket and looked at the caller ID. It was Emma.

"It's Emma!" He said with a confused look on his face. He had Emma's number and she had his, but they hardly ever called each other. They more or less had each other's numbers just for emergency purposes.

"Em?" He said as he answered the phone.

"Good, you answered!" Emma cried into the phone. "I need help! I called my mom, I called Snake and I called Joey and I called you and you're the only one that's answered and I really need your help! I don't know what to do, the police are here and. . ."

Wheels was getting worried. Emma was scaring him. He'd never heard her like this before, and it was like she was going hysterical.

"OK, Em, calm down! Breathe, OK? Take a deep breath!" He heard Emma heave a big, deep breath on the other end of the line. "Now tell me what's going on." He said.

Emma cried even harder.

"Emma! You're scaring me!" He said. "What's going on?"

"The police are here," she said, "And Mike and LeeAnn. . ."

"What about them?"

". . .Were in a really bad accident. The driver of the other car had been drinking and he ran a stop sign at a four-way intersection and hit them. They're DEAD!"

Wheels dropped his fork on his plate and it made a loud clink as it hit, startling Heather, who was sitting across from him.

"Oh God!" He exclaimed as he fumbled around in the pocket of his jeans looking for his car keys, which he couldn't find, his voice panic-stricken. He finally managed to find them. They'd gotten caught up in the material in his pocket.

"Where is Maddie?" He asked Emma as he tried to remain calm.

"She's in bed." Emma said as she cried into the phone. "She doesn't know what's going on."

"Uh, OK." Wheels said as he thought out loud. "Stay right there! I'll be right there, OK? Don't move!" He jumped to his feet and pushed the "Send" button on his phone.

"What's the matter?" Heather asked, looking alarmed.

"I'm really sorry, Heather, but I've got to go!" He explained. "There's been a terrible accident involving Mike and LeeAnn!"

Heather grew concerned.

"They're OK, right?" She asked.

Wheels shook his head no, and right about that time his eyes started tearing up.

"They were hit by a drunk driver." He explained. "They're dead!"

"Oh no!" Heather exclaimed.

"I have to go home and help Emma!" He said just before leaning in for a quick kiss. Heather shook her head, indicating that she understood.

"If I get a chance to I'll call you tomorrow and let you know what's going on!" He exclaimed as he headed toward the door.

Once he was out in the parking lot, Wheels ran to his car, unlocking the doors with the keyless entry remote as he ran. He jumped in the car with his heart pounding so hard it felt like it might just jump right out of his chest and fall out on his lap. He drove home using the quickest route that he knew of to get there. As he was pulling into the parking lot of his apartment building, he noticed two police cars parked outside in front of the building. He ran from his car to the building, and once he was in the building he ran to the elevator. Once he got off the elevator, he ran down the hall to the Hoecklinson's apartment, where he was met by two police officers.

"Good evening, sir." One of the officers said as she extended her hand out to Wheels to shake. "Are you the friend of the family the young lady called? Derek Wheeler?"

"Yeah," Wheels said, tears streaming down his cheeks. "I am."

"Do you of any relatives the family has in this area?" She asked.

"I don't think they have any around here." Wheels said as he tried to remember what little he had learned about the family. "They just moved here from Winnipeg a little over a month ago. I know LeeAnn said she has relatives that live in Halifax and in B.C. in Vancouver, but that's all I know."

"We have to temporary emergency housing for the two children." She explained. "If reasonable accommodations cannot be made, they'll have no choice but to go into foster care."

"It's OK." Wheels said after thinking for a moment. "They can stay with me for awhile, as long as they have to. I live right next door."

"This is only temporary." The officer replied. "The kids will have to be assigned a social worker who can help them deal with the changes they're going to have to face. It may be deemed by Children's Aide that it would be in their best interests to live with relatives or be put into foster care."

Wheels nodded in agreement. He knew all about that kind of stuff from when his own parents died.

"We're working on contacting the rest of the family to let them know of this unfortunate situation." The officer said. "You may also ask the children to contact any relatives they know of and let them know what's going on, too."

"Yeah. I'll do that." Wheels said as he lifted off his glasses and wiped away some tears.

"Mr. Wheeler, I am very sorry for your loss." The officer said. "If there is anything else we can do for you or for the kids, please let us know at the station."

"Thank you." Wheels said before turning to go into the apartment. The officer walked away.

He turned the knob on the door, knowing Emma probably hadn't locked it since the police were there. He opened the door to see Emma sitting on the couch, a glazed look over her eyes and her face pale white. Her eyes were puffy and red from all the crying she'd been doing. Emma looked up and saw him, and she got up from the couch and walked over to him.

"Are you OK?" Wheels asked her as he embraced her in a tight bear hug.

"Yeah, but I've been better!" She replied. "What about you?"

"This brings back a lot of horrible memories for me, Em." He replied as he let go of her. "I wouldn't wish this upon any kid in the world! What's worse is that I know what it feels like to be on both ends of the situation." He said, referring to how he felt when he lost his own parents and how he felt after he'd been told he killed a kid after his accident.

"I wonder what's gonna happen to Ty and Maddie?" Emma asked as she walked around the living room, almost in a trance.

"Well," Wheels said as he dropped his hands down to his sides, "I just got done talking to one of the cops outside, and they're gonna come stay with me for awhile. I figured that might be the best thing for them right now, that way they won't have to change schools or anything again, and they can live semi-normal lives. It's not going to be easy for them, though!"

Wheels took a seat on the couch.

"I really don't know what's going to happen, Em!" He took his glasses off and started crying hard.

Emma went and sat down next to him, this time hugging him instead.

"I'm really scared for both of them because I know what it's like, and I don't want either of them to make the same kinds of mistakes I made!"

"And that's why you need to help them through this." She replied. "Because YOU know what it's like to be in their shoes, and YOU can help them not to make the same mistakes you did!"

"I guess so." He replied, trying to compose himself. "Uh. . .Do ya know where Ty is?"

"Mike said he was over at Craig's when they left. I tried to call his cell just before you got here but I couldn't get him."

"Oh." Wheels replied quietly.

The two of them sat quietly together for a few minutes.

Wheels looked at the clock on the wall. It was almost eleven.

"It's late, Em. Why don't you pack your stuff up and go home? Your folks are probably starting to get worried." He said.

"Are you sure?" Emma asked.

"Yeah. Why don't you go ahead and go. I'll stay here. I'm gonna try to call Joey and see if he knows where Craig and Ty are and let him know what's going on."

"OK." Emma said as she got up from the couch. She picked up the duffle bag with the games and toys she'd brought with her and headed to the door. "I know how much it sucks," she said, "But everything's gonna be OK."

"I hope so." Wheels said, giving her a half-cocked smile.

After Emma closed the door, a familiar feeling crept over Wheels' body. It was kind of an eerie feeling. He suddenly felt like he was the only person in the world, that he was all alone, and it scared him; it REALLY scared him! He really wished he hadn't told Emma to go home!

He took his phone out of his pocket and speed-dialed Joey's number. Joey answered.

"Wheels?" Joey said, sounding confused. "Do you know what time it is? Man, it's almost eleven thirty!"

"I'm sorry!" Wheels said as he started to softly cry again as he got up and paced around the room.

"Are you OK?"

"Uh. . .no. I need to find Ty, and Emma told me he was with Craig. Do ya know where they're at?"

"Yeah, they're still here, they're in the garage. What's going on?"

"Emma was babysitting for Maddie tonight and she called me when I was out with Heather. She tried calling home and she tried calling Snake and Spike, but nobody would answer so she called me. The police were here and everything, and she didn't know what to do and. . ." He said as he sat back down on the couch, taking a deep breath.

"And. . .?"

Wheels took a deep breath again.

"And Mike and LeeAnn, Ty and Maddie's parents, were in an accident. They died, Joey, just like my parents died and that kid I killed died; from a drunk driver!"

"Oh God." Joey said. "I'm sorry to hear that!"

"When Emma called, I explained to Heather what was going on and I left and came back to their apartment. The cops were here and everything."

"What's going to happen with Ty and Maddie?"

"They're going to live with me for a little while until something else can be figured out. I don't think they have any family around here, and seeing how as I've been in this situation myself I really don't want to have to send them off to live in foster care or anything like that. I sent Emma home and told her I'd stay here with Maddie, since Maddie's in bed and has no idea what's going on."

"Well I'll send Ty home, OK?"

"OK." Wheels said quietly, almost in a whisper.

"If you need anything just call me, OK? That's what I'm here for!"

"OK. Bye, Joey."

Wheels hung up the phone. He got up and started pacing around the room again. He was so frustrated and angry!

_"Kids their age shouldn't have to worry about this kind of stuff!" _He thought to himself. _"They're supposed to be kids! Maddie should just have to worry about playing with her friends and having fun and Ty should just have to worry about going to school and hanging out with his friends and going on dates and just being a teenager!" _

He stopped pacing when he came to a wall where a family portrait had been hung. Mike, LeeAnn, Ty and Maddie were all happily smiling. They looked so happy and carefree, like nothing bad could ever happen. Feeling the anger and frustration build up inside of him-and forgetting that Maddie was asleep-he punched the wall, and punched it hard. The thud of his fist hitting the wall was just enough to wake Maddie, who got out of bed to see what was going on. Wheels turned around to see her standing in the middle of the hall rubbing her eyes.

"What's going on?" She asked.

Wheels walked over to her.

"Where's my mom and dad? Why are you here?"

"Here." Wheels said as he extended his arms out to her. He picked her up and carried her into the kitchen. He was going to have a lot of explaining to do to her and he knew she was going to have a lot of questions, and he wasn't quite sure how he'd answer them. "Want a glass of water?"

Maddie nodded her head yes, so he carried her into the kitchen, got a small cup out of the cabinet and filled it with some water and handed it to her. She took a drink out of it and he carried her into the living room and sat down on the couch with her.

"I really don't know how to tell you this." He said. "Have you ever had a pet that died?" He was trying to make this easy for her to understand.

"I had some fish that died." She said as she situated herself on the couch. "Mommy told me that when things that are really good die, they go up to this really nice place in the sky called Heaven. She said that as long as you're good and don't do mean things you'll go there."

_"Good." _Wheels thought. _"She understands death. . .a little." _Still, that wasn't going to make telling her any more easier!

"Do you remember what happened when your fish died?"

"Yeah. My daddy scooped them out of the tank and put them in the toilet. He let me say good-bye to them and then he flushed them down the toilet."

"Maddie," Wheels said "Tonight after you fell asleep, there was an accident. Your mommy and daddy. . .they aren't coming home. I'm really sorry, Kiddo!" He said as he hugged her really close and squeezed her tight as he cried. "They died."

"No they didn't!" Maddie said, smile creeping up on her face. "They're coming home!"

"No they're not. They went to Heaven.""

"NO!" Maddie screamed at him. "THEY'RE COMING HOME!"

"Maddie. . ."

Maddie started crying, which made Wheels cry.

"I wish they were coming home, Maddie, but they're not."

Wheels heard a key turn in the lock on the door. He'd locked the door after Emma left, so he knew that Ty must've been home.

Ty flung the door open to see Wheels sitting on the couch with his arms wrapped around Maddie.

"Joey told me you called." Ty said as he walked in and put the case containing his bass down in a chair. "He said I needed to go home and it was important. What's going on?"

"Sit down." Wheels said as he patted the seat next to him on the couch. Ty sat down there.

"This is really hard for me to tell you this." Wheels said with a distant, far away look in his eyes. "There was an accident tonight. They were at a four-way intersection and the driver on the opposite side of the road ran the stop sign and hit them head on. The driver of the other car was drunk, and your mom and dad. . ."

"They're OK, right?" Ty said.

Wheels shook his head no and looked down, then back up. "They didn't make it, buddy. I'm sorry!"

"No. No, this isn't happening!" Ty said as he got up and paced around the room, much in the same fashion Wheels had done earlier. "They're gonna come home! They're gonna come walking through that door any minute! That car that was hit, that wasn't theirs! It was just a car that looks like theirs!"

"Ty, believe me, I know this a lot to handle right now and it's hard to believe, but. . ."

"No!" Ty yelled as he headed off to his room. "This isn't happening!" With that, he slammed the door.

***

It was now 3 AM. Not wanting to leave Ty and Maddie alone, Wheels had decided to spend the night at their apartment. Maddie had finally cried herself to sleep on the couch, and he'd taken her and put her back in her own bed. Wanting to try and get a few hours of sleep himself since he knew the next few days would be extremely busy and grueling, he decided to convert the couch into a bed. The couch itself was actually a sleeper couch, so all he had to do was pull the mattress out of it from the bottom. He went back to his apartment and grabbed a blanket and some pillows and he tried to sleep, but it was hard. What sleep he did manage to get wasn't good, and he kept waking up, so he gave up. He watched TV for a little while, but he got tired of it, so he went back to his apartment to try and find something he could do that might help him fall asleep. He managed to find his old high school yearbooks and a photo album full of pictures of him and his family from when he was a kid. He took those back with him. Now, here he was, sitting at the Hoecklinson's dining room table, sipping warm camomile tea from a coffee cup and looking at old pictures.

Those old yearbooks brought back a lot of bittersweet memories of high school. Some of the pictures made him smile as he remembered the good old days at Degrassi High, and some of them made him sad as he remembered how he'd screwed things up and was continually blaming everyone else for his problems instead of taking responsibility for the stuff that actually was his fault. Then there were those family photos. He couldn't remember the last time he'd looked at those. They brought back lots of good memories, memories of just being a kid and feeling safe and secure in the world.

Wheels stopped when he got towards the end of the album. The pictures that he was looking at had been taken the summer just before his parents died, when they were on vacation in Wasaga Beach with is grandparents from his dad's side. He stopped to look at one in particular. It was of him, his mom and his dad. They were standing on the shore of the beach in their swim wear with the water behind them.

He remembered that day. It was hot out and they'd decided to go swimming. He'd spent most of the day in the water and ended up getting a killer sunburn. Still, it was worth it. They had fun together, and there were also several cute girls in bikinis there!

He was still staring at that picture when he heard footsteps coming down the hall. He looked up to see Ty standing there, looking quite worn and ragged.

"Hey." Ty said, forcing a smile on his face even though there wasn't much to smile about.

"Hi."

"I couldn't sleep." Ty said as he pulled out one of the chairs from the table.

"That's understandable." Wheels said as he drank from his mug.

"What'cha lookin' at?"

"Old pictures of my family. Boy, they sure do bring back some memories!"

They sat in silence for awhile.

"What's it like, not having a close family?" Ty asked, finally speaking up.

"It sucks." Wheels replied. "That's the only way to describe it! To me, my family is my friends. I spend all major holidays with them, celebrate birthdays with them, go out with them. They're all I have."

"Guess that's what Maddie and I have to look forward to, huh?"

"At least you have Maddie! When my parents died I was all alone!"

"How did your parents die, anyway?"

Wheels looked up at him. He had never told Ty how his parents died, he'd just told him that they'd died when he was about Ty's age. It was still painful to talk about.

"The same way yours did. They were hit by a drunk driver one night when they went out to see a movie."

Wheels started crying again.

"I remember feeling so. . .guilty! I'd been fighting with them because they wouldn't let me hang out with Joey, and the night they went to go to the movie I snuck out of the house after they left to go to Joey's. Snake walked me home, and when I got home there was a squad car sitting outside my house. I was late getting home, so I thought that maybe they'd called the cops when they'd got home and realized I wasn't there. Then my grandma got out of the car and told me what happened."

Ty looked down at the table.

"I was fighting with them this morning." He said. "If I'd known this was going to happen I never would've fought with them!" He cried.

"They didn't die because you had a fight with them, Ty." Wheels said, trying to console Ty. "It took me a long time to realize that myself."

"I'm really scared, man!" Ty said, inbetween tears. "What's going to happen to me? What's going to happen to Maddie? I barely know my aunt and uncle in B.C., and most of my dad's family lives in the States! I don't want to live with strangers!"

"You guys are gonna stay with me for a little while, just until something else can be figured out. I figured that way you can still go to school and try to maintain a semi-normal life, and you won't have to live with strangers. You'll be OK, I promise! I just need you to promise me a few things."

"Like what?"

"You'll go to school like you're supposed to. No skipping classes or anything like that! You can stay out next week until you feel ready to go back and while you're out you can have your friends bring you your homework, but you must go back! You'll be assigned a social worker, and I want you to talk to them. Be respectful to your friends, because you're gonna need them! Take it from someone who's been there and done that that you don't want to screw that up! Trust me!"

"I can do all of that." Ty said.

"The last thing is really important. I want you to promise me you'll talk to me. I know what you're feeling like and what you're going through and I want to help, but I can't help if I don't know what's going on. Even if I don't fully understand everything that's going on, I promise I'll try to. I don't want to take the place of your parents, but I really do want to help."


End file.
